In a surprising turn of events, the SpaceX CEO, alongside a group of investors, made a large bid of USD 97.4 billion to acquire OpenAI. In response to Musk’s staggering bid, Sam Altman, the CEO of the leading AI research organization ‘OpenAI’ dismissed his offer in an X post. He wrote, “No thank you but we will buy Twitter for $9.74 billion if you want.” This move follows Musk’s long-standing relationship with OpenAI which he co-founded a decade ago, in 2015.

This jibe marks the ongoing tensions between the two tech giants. Elon Musk founded the American startup Artificial Intelligence company xAI on March 9, 2023, with an aim ‘to understand the true nature of the universe’. The New York Times cited a person familiar with OpenAI’s potential response saying, the company is yet to review Musk’s bid. This unexpected offer may disrupt the research organization’s efforts to finalise a massive deal of USD 40 billion.

This bid comes at a pivotal time when OpenAI is in discussions to raise the company’s valuation up to USD 340 billion. Musk had earlier raised concerns that the company has deviated from its ambitious ventures and founding principles, which had led to the tensions between him and the company.

According to Experts, if the deal is sealed, it would position OpenAI alongside SpaceX & ByteDance and make it one of the most valuable private companies in the world. Over the years, with the evolvement of OpenAI, the relationship between Musk and Altman has strained. In August 2023, Musk took legal action against the company, accusing the officials of putting profits before its non-profit inception.

After taking oath in January, Donald Trump in the first week of his presidency announced $500B AI investment with OpenAI, Oracle, and SoftBank. The move was criticised by Musk who claimed, “They don’t actually have the money.”