Elon Musk and a group of investors offered to buy ChatGPT-maker OpenAI for $97.4 billion Monday, a sum far below the artificial-intelligence company’s most recent valuation of $157 billion. OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman immediately shot down the offer in a post on X. “No thank you but we will buy twitter for $9.74 billion if you want,” he wrote, using the former name of Musk’s social media company, which he bought for $44 billion in 2022. Musk replied to Altman with a single word, writing “Swindler.” OpenAI’s board has been broadly supportive of Altman, and almost all of its members took their seats after he survived an attempt by the previous board to eject him from the company. Musk’s offer, which his lawyer Marc Toberoff said in an email was sent to OpenAI’s board Monday, is an escalation of the long-running feud between two of the world’s most powerful tech titans. Musk helped to found, and fund, OpenAI in 2015 but left three years later after Altman and other leaders rejected the Tesla CEO’s suggestion that he take over the company. In 2023, Musk started a competitor to OpenAI called xAI, which offers a chatbot called Grok.

Full report : Elon Musk’s $97.4B OpenAI offer could force OpenAI’s board to reassess how it is valuing the nonprofit, which could cost Sam Altman even though he rejected it.