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A team of investors led by Elon Musk submitted a $97.6 billion bid to purchase OpenAI on Monday. The news comes by way of Musk\u2019s lawyer, Marc Toberoff, who confirmed the reporting<\/a> with The Wall Street Journal.<\/p>\n The unsolicited bid is the latest escalation by Musk in his war with co-founder Sam Altman, with whom he co-founded OpenAI with numerous other individuals back in 2015. Musk is already embroiled in a legal dispute with OpenAI, filing a 2024 injunction<\/a> against its effort to transition away from its nonprofit status. The Musk-led team is positioning the move as a bid to refocus OpenAI on open sourced AI, as was its initial aim.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s time for OpenAI to return to the open source, safety-focused force for good it once was,\u201d Musk told The Journal, by way of Toberoff. \u201cWe will make sure that happens.\u201d Musk\u2019s own AI firm, xAI, is involved with the bid, leading to speculation that a successful acquisition could find the two companies merging.<\/p>\n Musk specifically calls out X\u2019s Grok model in a related statement provided to TechCrunch. \u201cAt x.AI, we live by the values I was promised OpenAI would follow,\u201d the billionaire says. \u201cWe\u2019ve made Grok open source, and we respect the rights of content creators,\u201d said Musk. \u201cIt\u2019s time for OpenAI to return to the open-source, safety-focused force for good it once was. We will make sure that happens.\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n In response to Musk\u2019s offer, Altman earlier Monday authored a cheeky X post<\/a>, writing, \u201cno thank you but we will buy Twitter for $9.74 billion if you want.\u201d Musk and investors famously purchased Twitter for $44 billion<\/a> in 2022. TechCrunch has reached out to OpenAI for further comment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n