OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, 39, made it clear on Tuesday that OpenAI was not for sale following a surprise $97.4 billion offer from Elon Musk on Monday for the company’s operating assets.
“Elon tries all sorts of things,” Altman told Bloomberg at the Paris AI Action Summit on Tuesday. “I think he’s probably just trying to slow us down.”
Altman pointed out that Musk, 53, is the CEO of xAI, a rival AI startup that last raised $6 billion in December 2024. xAI is “trying to compete” with OpenAI by trying to get new technologies and products to the market faster than OpenAI, according to Altman.
Altman was later asked in the interview if Musk trying to take over OpenAI came from a position of insecurity about xAI’s technology. Altman responded with a personal jab at Musk.
“Probably his whole life is from a position of insecurity,” Altman said. “I feel for the guy, I do, I don’t think he’s a happy person.”
Musk led a group of investors to make an unsolicited offer to buy OpenAI, submitting a bid to OpenAI’s board of directors on Monday, per the Wall Street Journal. Musk said in a statement provided by his lawyer, Marc Toberoff, that his intention with the bid was to bring OpenAI back “to the open-source, safety-focused force of good it once was.”
Altman quickly responded with a post on X on Monday, writing, “No thank you, but we will buy Twitter for $9.74 billion if you want.”
Musk paid $44 billion for Twitter, now X, in October 2022. Musk replied to Altman’s post with one word: “Swindler.”
Shortly after the exchange, Musk posted on X “Scam Altman” with a clip of Altman testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee in May 2023. In the clip, Senator John Kennedy (R-LA) asks Altman if he makes a lot of money. Altman says he is paid enough for health insurance and has no equity in OpenAI. Kennedy says that Altman “needs a lawyer or an agent,” and Altman responds by saying that he is working at OpenAI “because [he] loves it.”
Altman makes $76,000 per year as OpenAI’s CEO but is worth at least $2 billion according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index because of investments in Stripe, Reddit, and nuclear energy startup Helion.
Swindler
— Harry Bōlz (@elonmusk) February 10, 2025
Scam Altman
pic.twitter.com/j9EXIqBZ8u— Harry Bōlz (@elonmusk) February 10, 2025
Musk helped cofound OpenAI and left in early 2018 after Altman and other company founders rejected Musk’s proposal to take control of and run the company. He has since filed lawsuits against Altman and OpenAI president Greg Brockman, accusing them of going against the founding principles of OpenAI and working to maximize profits for Microsoft, a now key investor that has poured close to $14 billion into the company.
Related: Elon Musk Accuses ChatGPT-Maker OpenAI of Being a ‘Market-Paralyzing Gorgon’: Lawsuit
Altman took another jab at Musk by telling Bloomberg on Tuesday that he wished Musk would compete with OpenAI by building better products, instead of filing lawsuits and the $97.4 billion bid.
“There’s been a lot of tactics, many, many lawsuits, all sorts of other crazy stuff, now this,” he said referring to the bid. “We’ll try to put our heads down and keep working.”
Musk is the richest man in the world with a net worth of $395 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
