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By Arsheeya Bajwa, Anna Tong and Krystal Hu
(Reuters) – A consortium led by Elon Musk said on Monday that he had offered $ 97.4 billion to buy the non -profit organization that controls Openai, another salvo in the billionaire’s fight to block the startup D ‘Artificial intelligence of the transition to a for -profit company.
Musk’s offer is expected to increase long -standing tensions with the CEO of Openai Sam Altman on the future of the Chatpt manufacturer at the heart of a Boom in AI generative technology. Altman Monday posted quickly on X: “No thanks but we will buy Twitter for $ 9.74 billion if you wish.”
Musk co -founded Openai with Altman in 2015 as a non -profit organization, but left before takeoff of society. He founded the startup of the competitor XAI in 2023.
Musk, CEO of Tesla and owner of Tech and social media company X, is a close ally of President Donald Trump. He spent more than a quarter of a billion dollars to help elect Trump and heads the government ministry, a new white house arm, responsible for radically reducing federal bureaucracy. Musk recently criticized a project led by Openai of $ 500 billion announced by Trump in the White House.
OPENAI is now trying to go to a profit from a non -profit entity, which says it is necessary to secure the capital necessary to develop the best models of AI.
Musk continued Altman and others in August from last year, saying that they had violated the contractual arrangements by putting profits before the public good in the thrust to advance AI. In November, he asked an American district judge a preliminary injunction preventing OPENAI from converting into a for -profit structure.
Musk’s trial against Openai and Altman said that the founders were originally approached to finance a non -profit organization focused on the development of AI for the benefit of humanity, but that it was now focused on getting money.
“It’s time for Openai to return to open source force and focusing for good,” Musk said in a statement on Monday. “We will make sure it happens.”
Altman told staff in a message that the company’s board of directors intends to specify that he was not interested in the “supposed submission” of Musk, according to an information report on Monday. He told Axios on Tuesday Openai was not for sale.
Musk and Openai Backer Microsoft did not immediately respond to requests for comments.
The consortium led by Musk includes its AI XAI startup, Baron Capital Group, Emanuel Capital and others.
XAI could merge with Openai following an agreement, according to the Wall Street Journal, which first pointed out Musk’s offer on Musk sooner. XAI recently raised $ 6 billion in investors to an evaluation of $ 40 billion, sources told Reuters.
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