02-15-2025 
The Elon Musk vs Sam Altman Feud part 2
14 February, 2025
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Late in the afternoon on February 10, it was announced that Elon Musk, backed by a conglomerate of investors, had placed a $97.4 billion bid to acquire OpenAI.
After the news broke, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman quickly responded via Twitter, declining Musk’s offer to buy and firing back with his offer for OpenAI to purchase social media platform X.
Musk, who is not known to back down from public confrontation, quickly responded by calling Altman a “swindler” and went on to send a few tweets out referring to the OpenAI CEO as “Scam Altman.”
Why did Musk try to buy OpenAI?
Altman’s rejection of Musk’s bid was expected, but what caught many off guard was Musk making the offer in the first place. Why would Musk, who resigned from OpenAI’s Board in 2018, suddenly want to acquire the company?
At its core, this move is Musk fueling the fire that has become an ongoing political, economic, and intercompany war against him and OpenAI. Even Altman acknowledged that Musk’s bid was an effort to “slow” OpenAI’s progress.
“I think he’s probably just trying to slow us down. He obviously is a competitor,” Altman said in an interview with Bloomberg’s Tom Mackenzie at the Paris AI Summit.
“He is working hard and raising a lot of money for xAI, and they are trying to compete with us from a technological perspective, getting the product into the market. I wish he would compete by just building the better product, but I think there have been a lot of tactics, many, many lawsuits, all sorts of other crazy stuff, and now this,” he added.
Musk’s fight against OpenAI’s shift to profitability
A major sticking point in Musk’s feud with OpenAI has been the company’s transition from a non-profit to a for-profit entity—a shift that has clearly aggravated Musk to the point where he has sued OpenAI over what he claims is a deviation from its original, non-profit mission. This transition is unsettling for Musk, who feels like he provided a lot of the financial backing for OpenAI in its earliest days to get it to where it is today without seeing any return because it was a non-profit—something you can read more about in Part one of our coverage of the Elon Musk vs. OpenAI feud.
But now that he has left the company he feels he helped grow so much, it is making a change that will allow it to give its backers financial returns—something Musk maybe feels entitled to due to the role he played in the company’s early days but is no longer able to reap since he is not with the firm and does not have a stake in it.
When OpenAI completes its transition into a B-corp, Altman has stated that the non-profit will continue to exist, with the expectation that it will own a minority stake in the for-profit entity, and this is where Musk’s offer creates complications: If Musk were to purchase OpenAI in its current state, he would ultimately own part of the newly structured for-profit company—something that OpenAI’s leadership clearly has no interest in.
In addition, Elon has set a valuation benchmark by offering to acquire OpenAI for $97.4 billion. This figure effectively represents what Musk and his investment partners believe OpenAI is worth today, including its non-profit and for-profit arms. Musk’s bid comes in at a valuation significantly lower than OpenAI’s last known valuation. In October, OpenAI raised $6.6 billion at a $157 billion valuation—far higher than the $97.4 billion Musk has proposed. The company is also rumored to be seeking an additional $40 billion in funding, potentially pushing its valuation to $300 billion.
Musk’s offer disrupts OpenAI’s transition in a key way; if OpenAI moves forward with its restructuring, it will need to assess and revalue assets that were previously under the non-profit umbrella. If Musk’s bid is on record at $97.4 billion, it could make it more difficult for OpenAI to justify a higher or lower valuation for certain assets during this transition—something that could slow down the process, which, as Altman pointed out, seems to be part of Musk’s strategy.
OpenAI’s board faces pressure to consider the offer
Although Altman quickly dismissed Musk’s offer, and OpenAI board members claim they haven’t officially received a bid, the fact remains that OpenAI operates a for-profit arm. This means the board has a fiduciary responsibility to act in the best interest of its shareholders.
That obligation means Musk’s bid, no matter how unwelcome, must at least be discussed. If the board determines that selling to Musk is the best move for shareholders, they could theoretically go through with the offer. However, this remains an extremely unlikely scenario, especially with OpenAI’s rumored initial public offering (IPO) aspirations that would most likely be a much bigger liquidity event for the company than what Musk is offering.
Altman takes a personal jab at Musk
In the immediate aftermath of Musk’s bid, Altman took to X, but he also addressed the situation in greater depth the following day at the Paris AI Summit. While discussing why Musk might want to slow OpenAI’s progress, Altman went further—turning the conversation toward Musk’s character.
When Bloomberg’s Tom Mackenzie asked if Musk’s actions stemmed from insecurity about xAI’s position in the AI race, Altman responded by saying, “Probably his whole life is from a position of insecurity. I feel for the guy. I don’t think he’s a happy person. I do feel for him.”
This isn’t the first time Altman has made pointed remarks about Musk’s self-perception. In January, when Musk launched an X tirade against the StarGate deal, Altman responded with a cryptic tweet: “Just one more mean tweet and then maybe you’ll love yourself.”
What’s next for Elon Musk, OpenAI, and Sam Altman?
Musk and Altman’s battle has already played out across multiple arenas—political, economic, and technological. Now, with Altman continuing to frame Musk as an insecure and unhappy figure, the feud is increasingly becoming personal.
And it’s far from over. In the coming months, this conflict will escalate as it enters the courtroom and Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI moves forward.
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