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On February 10, a group of investors led by Elon Musk made a $97.4 billion offer to acquire Sam Altman’s OpenAI. According to Musk’s attorney, Marc Toberoff, the bid included Elon, his AI startup xAI, and a few investment firms, including Baron Capital Group, Valor Management, Atreides Management, Vy Fund, Emanuel Capital Management, and Eight Partners VC. Their goal was to revert OpenAI to its original mission of being a nonprofit research lab.
Toberoff stated in a statement with Time that if Sam Altman and OpenAI’s current board “are intent on becoming a fully for-profit corporation, it is vital that the charity be fairly compensated for what its leadership is taking away from it: control over the most transformative technology of our time.”
Sam Altman quickly dismissed the unsolicited bid, responding to the offer on X, the social media platform owned by Musk. Additionally, he offered to buy Twitter for $9.74 billion.
“No thank you but we will buy Twitter for $9.74 billion if you want,” the OpenAI CEO tweeted.
Musk replied on X, calling Altman a “swindler” and later referring to him as “Scam Altman” in a response to an X user. Amid their latest dispute, it is noteworthy that Sam Altman has an estimated net worth of $1.2 billion, as per Forbes.
Notably, Elon Musk helped OpenAI CEO Sam Altman in co-founding the artificial intelligence startup in 2015. The duo initially served as co-chairs but clashed over leadership and the company's direction. Eventually, Musk resigned from the board, while Altman proposed that OpenAI shift from its intended humanitarian cause to a “capped” for-profit setup in 2019.
Meanwhile, Elon Musk acquired Twitter for $44 billion in October 2022 and later rebranded it as X.
More about Sam Altman’s fortune amid his bid exchange with Elon Musk
Samuel Harris Altman is an American tech entrepreneur and venture investor best known as the CEO of OpenAI, now valued at $80 billion, as per Forbes. He has held the role since 2019, though he was briefly ousted before being reinstated in November 2023. Meanwhile, Investopedia reports that in October 2024, OpenAI was valued at approximately $157 billion during a funding venture, raising 6.6 billion.
Altman dropped out of Stanford University in 2005 and founded the social mapping company Loopt, which he sold in 2012 for $43 million. He used the money to start developing his venture fund. Back then, he was also a partner at startup accelerator Y Combinator before becoming its president from 2014 to 2019.
After resigning from YC, Sam Altman became the CEO of OpenAI. Notably, he has no direct equity in the company but rather an indirect one made through a small investment via Y Combinator before he officially became OpenAI’s co-chairman and eventually its CEO.
The majority of Altman's wealth comes from his venture investments. He holds stakes in other companies, such as the $70 billion-worth fintech firm Stripe, social networking site Reddit, clean energy company Oklo Inc., and nuclear fusion firm Helion Energy. The 39-year-old is the chairman of both Oklo Inc. and Helion Energy.
According to Investopedia, Sam Altman is one of the largest shareholders of Reddit and served on its board until 2022. An SEC filing of February 2024 listed him as having an 8.7 percent stake in Reddit, ahead of the platform’s initial public offering last March. Meanwhile, Fortune reported in October last year that Sam Altman owned 12.2 million shares in a $1.4 billion company, Reddit.
Some of the other companies Sam Altman has invested in over the years through his venture funds Hydrazine Capital and Apollo Projects include Airbnb, Uber, Instacart, Asana, Retro Biosciences, and DoorDash.
Elon Musk sued OpenAI last year
In 2024, Elon Musk, an early investor and former board member of OpenAI, filed a lawsuit against the company, accusing it of going against its original goal of a nonprofit research lab that would “benefit the public good by safely building better-than-human AI,” as reported by Time.
The filing was first done at a California state court, followed by a federal court. Earlier in February 2025, the legal teams of Musk and Altman appeared in a California federal court. U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers assessed Elon’s request for a court order that would prevent OpenAI from turning into a for-profit company and continuing with its alleged antitrust violations.
The judge has yet to rule on the request. However, she said last week in the courtroom that Musk’s claim that OpenAI’s shift in corporate structure would hurt him was a “stretch.” Notably, the Tesla CEO has invested over $45 million in OpenAI since its formation until he left it in 2018.
However, Judge Rogers has raised concerns about the OpenAI CEO’s relationship with business partner Microsoft and indicated that Musk’s case might move to a jury trial next year.
Meanwhile, the AI startup, led by Sam Altman, announced its plans last year to officially change its corporate structure, despite still being controlled by a nonprofit board.
