The legal battle between tech moguls Elon Musk and Sam Altman over the future of OpenAI has intensified with Altman rejecting Musk’s unsolicited $97.4 billion offer to acquire the artificial intelligence powerhouse.
According to a court filing on Wednesday, OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman argued that Musk’s all-cash bid contradicts his legal position that OpenAI’s assets cannot be “transferred away” for “private gain.”
The filing which was submitted in the U.S. District Court for Northern California described Musk’s attempt to block OpenAI’s for-profit conversion as “an improper bid to undermine a competitor.”
Musk and a coalition of investors made the $97.4 billion offer on February 10, but Altman dismissed the proposal, stating that the company is “not for sale.”
He further characterised Musk’s move as an attempt to “slow us down.”
The dispute stems from Musk’s legal challenge against OpenAI’s restructuring, which he claims breaches its original mission as a charitable trust and violates antitrust laws due to the company’s relationship with Microsoft Corp. Musk’s legal team argued that Altman breached his fiduciary duty by rejecting the buyout before the board could review it.
“If OpenAI, Inc.’s Board is prepared to preserve the charity’s mission and stipulate to take the ‘for sale’ sign off its assets by halting its conversion, Musk will withdraw the bid,” his lawyers stated in the filing. “Otherwise, the charity must be compensated by what an arms-length buyer will pay for its assets.”
Despite Musk’s offer to withdraw his bid if OpenAI halts its for-profit conversion, Altman rejected the proposal outright.
OpenAI’s lawyers accused Musk of hypocrisy, stating, “Out of court, those constraints evidently do not apply, so long as Musk and his allies are the buyers.”
U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, who is presiding over the case, indicated at a February 4 hearing that she may allow Musk to proceed to trial on certain claims with the earliest trial date expected in late 2026.
The battle over OpenAI’s future continues to draw attention as it pits two leading figures in artificial intelligence against each other with the outcome poised to shape the trajectory of the rapidly evolving AI industry.
