Tech Desk 
Feb 11, 2025
An undated image of Elon Musk. — Pixabay
In what appears to be an attempt at broadening his portfolio of acquisitions, Elon Musk and his allies on Monday made a bid of $97.4 billion to take over OpenAI.
The bid is believed to be made out of Musk's continued efforts to prevent the artificial intelligence (AI) startup from becoming a for-profit firm.
This bid is expected to aggravate tensions for OpenAI CEO Sam Altman pertaining to the ChatGPT maker's future currently witnessing overwhelming acclamation in the realm of AI, according to Reuters.
In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Altman took a cheeky jibe at the Musk group in response to their considerable bid, stating: "No thank you but we will buy Twitter for $9.74bn if you want."
Musk and the rest of the consortium's will to acquire a non-profit AI startup is linked with his former association with OpenAI as its co-founder in 2015. He went offboard the company shortly before it registered skyrocketing success. To bring a formidable contestant against the Altman-led company, he then established AI startup xAI in 2023.
The development comes on the heels of OpenAI's plans to turn into a for-profit from a nonprofit entity, a change it attributes to the generation of revenue to fund more and better AI models in future.
The CEO of xAI last year sued Altman for allegedly contravening contract provisions by prioritising profit over public good as part of its efforts to have an edge against rivals in the AI race.
