"We are not for sale," ChatGPT boss says after Musk's $97 bn bid

New Delhi: Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, the company behind the AI chatbot ChatGPT, rebuffed a $97.4 billion (£78.4 billion) takeover bid led by Elon Musk.

The bid, which came from a consortium of investors spearheaded by Musk, aimed to acquire all assets of OpenAI, escalating a long-standing feud between Musk and Altman over the company's direction and mission. 

"We are not for sale," Altman said, emphasising OpenAI's unique organisational structure and its commitment to advancing artificial general intelligence (AGI) for the benefit of humanity.

The tension between Musk and Altman has roots in their shared history; both co-founded OpenAI in 2015, but their paths diverged when Musk left in 2018 amid disagreements over the company's shift from a non-profit model to one that could attract significant for-profit investment. 

As per the news reports, Musk's attorney, Marc Toberoff, confirmed the bid was submitted to OpenAI's board, highlighting Musk's vision to revert the company to its original open-source, safety-focused roots.

In response to the bid, Altman took to X (formerly known as Twitter), where he countered with, "No thank you but we will buy Twitter for $9.74 billion if you want." 

This quip was a reference to Musk's acquisition of Twitter for $44 billion in 2022.

This move by Musk comes at a time when OpenAI is already in discussions for further funding, with reports suggesting a valuation now at $300 billion. The company has been transitioning towards a for-profit model to secure the massive investments needed for AI research, a move Altman has defended as necessary to fulfill OpenAI's mission.