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A GROUP OF investors led by Elon Musk has said it is offering more than $97 billion (€94.1b) to buy OpenAI, escalating a legal dispute with the artificial intelligence company that Musk helped found.
Musk and his own AI start-up, xAI, and a consortium of investment firms say they want to buy the ChatGPT-maker and revert it back to its original charitable mission as a non-profit research lab, according to Musk lawyer Marc Toberoff.
OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman quickly rejected the deal on Musk’s social media platform X, saying “no thank you but we will buy twitter for $9.74 billion if you want”.
no thank you but we will buy twitter for $9.74 billion if you want
— Sam Altman (@sama) February 10, 2025
Musk bought Twitter, now called X, for $44 billion in 2022.
Musk and Altman, who together helped start OpenAI in 2015 and later competed over who should lead it, have been in a long-running feud over the start-up’s direction since Musk resigned from its board in 2018.
Musk, an early OpenAI investor and board member, sued the artificial intelligence company last year, first in a California state court and later in federal court, alleging it had betrayed its founding aims as a non-profit research lab benefiting the public good.
Musk had invested about $45 million (€43.6m) in the start-up from its founding until 2018, Toberoff said in court last week.
Musk and OpenAI lawyers faced off in a California federal court last week as a judge weighed up Musk’s request for a court order that would block the ChatGPT-maker from converting itself to a for-profit company.
US district judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers has not yet ruled on Musk’s request but in court said it was a “stretch” for Musk to claim he will be irreparably harmed if she does not intervene to stop OpenAI from moving forward with its planned transition towards becoming a for-profit corporation.
But the judge also raised concerns about OpenAI and its relationship with business partner Microsoft and said she would not stop the case from moving to trial as soon as next year so a jury can decide.
“It is plausible that what Mr Musk is saying is true. We’ll find out. He’ll sit on the stand,” she said.
Along with Musk and xAI, others backing the bid include Baron Capital Group, Valor Management, Atreides Management, Vy Fund and Eight Partners VC.
Toberoff said in a statement that if Altman and OpenAI’s current board “are intent on becoming a fully for-profit corporation, it is vital that the charity be fairly compensated for what its leadership is taking away from it: control over the most transformative technology of our time”.
Toberoff added that Musk, as an OpenAI co-founder and successful tech leader, “is the person best positioned to protect and grow OpenAI’s technology”.
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You’re gonna pay $97billion for it and then revert it to a not-for-profit research lab? Nah
@Ian McDonald: Well, he seems to have done that with Twitter, albeit unintentionally.
And Tesla is heading for the rocks too.
@ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere: Tesla is a speculative asset. Simply put, they don’t hit targets.
Musk must now be deemed the world’s most dangerous man. A lunatic with more money than sense. This takeover must be resisted at all costs or we will reap a never ending whirlwind of shït.
@Anthony Curran: it is more interesting – who investing in to his company acquisitions. Musks X acquisition was heavily invested by putins russian oligarchs “kids”. Hence that pro russian narrative that he is promoting. Who will invest in to his AI acquisition? He is not spending his own money by the way.
@Lei tatt: Never spend your own money (apparently)
@Joe Willis: Who gives Netanyahu the weaponry? Who bankrolls the ethnic cleansing and genocide in Palestine? Netanyahu is nothing but a puppet on a string.
@Joe Willis: They are on the same team and equally dangerous.
@Joe Willis: Musk had more power than Netanyahu could even dream about ffs. You guys really dont understand scale atall. All this information and no knowledge of how to process it.
@Louis Jacob: *has more power.
@Nemethon: thank you
For God’s sake, will somebody think of the Badgers.
@Dan Murphy: idc how that guy is not behind bars
@Dan Murphy: Pat Kenny’s never far away from a scrap where his gaff is involved.
@Dan Murphy: Badgers are useful hostages to wage lawfare. Does he ever interview any that is not anti Trump.
@thomas molloy: in fairness anyone with a functioning brain who knows a smidgin of history would be anti Trump at this stage. He’s proving those of us right who said he would be a dictator. How many executive orders so far?
The purchase being to acquire the tech to cover Musk’s tracks better when he cheats at online games? Musk is a man devoid of genuine capacity. He’s a fraud, a rank tumor spreading his agenda where it absolutely does not belong.
@Numinous20111: If he’s a fraud do we have an example of a ‘real’ billionaire?
@Numinous20111: Musk is not a fraud as such, I saw a video recently where someone described him as a cuckoo. Gets into the nest and pushes the other chicks out. It is an accurate reflection of what he is and why he became so rich.
@Thesaltyurchin: I’m not sure if you are being sarcastic or not. If not, then you need to check Musk’s actual business history as opposed to his own claims and the tendency of this civilisation to equate wealth with genuine ability and look beyond the surface varnish.
@Thesaltyurchin: his money is legit.it’s just his intellect that’s in question these days
@Numinous20111: just that there’s 2,781 other billionaires out there
Great, another thing I would have to stop using if that subhuman filth took it over.
@Daniel Skelton: you’re reasonings for boycotting a company don’t seem to be very consistent, if you still use OpenAi while Altman is the founder and CEO. But would boycott if Musk took it over? Interesting.
@Joe Willis: Cool story, bro.
@Daniel Skelton: maybe do a little research before making such a contradiction you innocent boy
@Daniel Skelton: I am an avid chatgpt user and the ethics of the company’s newer board has made me fee extremely uncomfortable, the Microsoft thing is one side but the military R&D is another. I have been looking to move away from it for a while I just can’t find a good enough competitor.
@miss lojo: If you’re looking for a new platform, I don’t recommend DeepSeek, seeing as it’s recently been discovered to host data unencrypted on ByteDance servers.
Feck. Give my data to Musk or the Chinese Government? Decisions, decisions….
@Ronan Mc: he is in bed with Chinese government anyway. So won’t matter
@Ronan Mc: Peter Thiel?
it’s like religion : all about control !
and one think they don’t want is integrity.
Elon, what a character lol
@Barry Spoon: I see your ‘juggernaut of peace’ is promoting the resumption of the war in Gaza, (not that it ever really stopped)
@Dermot Blaine: can you be anymore transparent, Brenny? lol
@Barry Spoon: I’m still not Brenny, no matter how often you say it. Now, explain how your “juggernaut of peace president” can threaten all out war against a civilian population.
@Dermot Blaine: of course, Brenny lol
@Barry Spoon: Yeah, no one is buying what you’re selling.
Every accusation is a confession.
@Dermot Blaine: Anytime he doesn’t want to answer for his utter bs and hypocrisy he just throws out the old “Ah sure your using multiple names” smoke and mirrors shite.
Musk is a deep-fake. An accelerationist, On one hand yes, keep it free to maximise the machines ability to learn, maybe then set it as a network for other suppliers, like Apple with apps or the ESB with our national grid, but on the other hand, money cant really be the motive, maybe he’s rich fake friends are in the way of his ambition to explore the universe. Certainly he’s moving through politics like he doesn’t want to be in it for very long
This lad is like wannabe Dr evil….
Buy deepseek if you dare or tiktok or even try to !
BYD EV erasing tesla legacy
Deepseek will too
Musk = the anti-christ
Trump = the christ
007 is being briefed as we speak.
What a scammer this guy is.
Ps that trump loving musk is a nut job,and I think you will see soon,like his boss
You poor sods,I’m talking to all you fools,that love spending your time winding each other up!not one of you desk jockeys have one clue about anything!just want to wind!sad
Ya need to GET a life weirdo’s
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