Elon Musk, who had previously sued OpenAI, has now tried to buy the company. Recent reports say that Musk, along with a group of investors, made an offer to CEO Sam Altman to purchase OpenAI for $97 billion. However, Altman turned down the offer with a clear, "no, thank you."

According to a report published by the Wall Street Journal, Musk and his investment group have formally asked the board of OpenAI to take over the business and restore it to its nonprofit roots. Marc Toberoff, Musk’s lawyer, stated, "If Sam Altman and the current board want OpenAI to become a fully for-profit company, it’s important that the charity is fairly compensated for losing control of such groundbreaking technology." However, in response, Altman dismissed the offer in a post on Musk’s social media platform, X, saying, "No thanks, but we’d be willing to buy Twitter for $9.74 billion if you’re interested." This was an ironic allusion to Musk's 2022 acquisition of Twitter (now X), which cost $44 billion.

In 2024, Musk sued OpenAI twice. The first lawsuit, in July 2024, claimed that OpenAI had strayed from its original mission, becoming more focused on profit rather than benefiting humanity. Musk argued that this shift put OpenAI’s work under corporate control, which went against its founding principles. This legal dispute highlighted the conflict between Musk’s vision of AI as an open, nonprofit initiative and OpenAI’s push for commercial growth. Musk accused OpenAI of racing to create potent "artificial general intelligence" technologies in order to "maximise profits" in a new lawsuit he filed in August 2024. Musk also charged the business with racketeering.

Elon Musk's lawsuit against OpenAI emanates from a growing disagreement between him and the company he helped create. Musk was one of the early supporters of OpenAI, which started as a nonprofit organisation dedicated to artificial intelligence. However, over time he grew dissatisfied with the company's course, though, particularly after it adopted a "capped-profit" model, which he believed undermined its initial goal. Additionally, Musk has voiced worries about OpenAI's leadership and possible sway over AI technologies embedded entity widgets.