Musk Group Seeks OpenAI Control --- Offer of $97.4 billion complicates CEO's plan to shift it to for-profit company

"A consortium of investors led by Elon Musk is offering $97.4 billion to buy the nonprofit that controls OpenAI, upping the stakes in his battle with Sam Altman over the company behind ChatGPT.

Musk's attorney, Marc Toberoff, said he submitted a bid for all of the nonprofit's assets to OpenAI's board on Monday.

The unsolicited offer adds a major complication to Altman's carefully laid plans for OpenAI's future, including converting it to a for-profit company and spending up to $500 billion on AI infrastructure through a joint venture called Stargate. He and Musk are already fighting in court over the direction of OpenAI.

"It's time for OpenAI to return to the open-source, safety-focused force for good it once was," Musk said in a statement provided by Toberoff. "We will make sure that happens."

Altman quickly rejected the offer on X. He wrote, "no thank you but we will buy twitter for $9.74 billion if you want," using the previous name for the Musk-owned social-media platform and moving the decimal point in the billionaire's bid for OpenAI one space to the left.

In a Slack message to employees, Altman wrote, "Our structure ensures that no individual can take control of OpenAI. . . These are tactics to try and weaken us because we are making great progress."

Altman and Musk co-founded OpenAI in 2015 as a charity. In 2019, after Musk left the company and Altman became chief executive, OpenAI created a for-profit subsidiary that has served as a vehicle for it to raise money from Microsoft and other investors. Altman is in the process of turning the subsidiary into a traditional company and spinning out the nonprofit, which would own equity in the new for-profit.

One of the thorniest questions in the conversion has been how the nonprofit will be valued. Musk's bid sets a high bar and might mean that he, or whoever runs the nonprofit, would end up with a large and possibly controlling stake in the new OpenAI.

The bid is being backed by Musk's artificial-intelligence company xAI, which could merge with OpenAI after a deal. He has several investors backing him, including Valor Equity Partners, Baron Capital, Atreides Management, Vy Capital and 8VC, a venture firm led by Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale. Ari Emanuel, CEO of Hollywood company Endeavor, is also backing the offer through his investment fund.

Musk filed a series of legal complaints accusing OpenAI of betraying its original mission by creating a for-profit arm and colluding with its largest investor, Microsoft, to dominate the development of AI.

On Jan. 7, Toberoff sent a letter to the attorneys general in California, where OpenAI is based, and Delaware, where it is incorporated, asking that they open up bidding for the company to determine the fair market value of its charitable assets. Musk and other critics have said they believe OpenAI might undervalue the nonprofit when they spin it out.

OpenAI has called Musk's legal claims baseless and overreaching and said the nonprofit will receive full value in its ownership stake of the for-profit. The company released documents in December that it said showed Musk supported turning OpenAI into a for-profit but walked away because he couldn't get control of it.

Toberoff said Musk's investor group is prepared to match or exceed any bids higher than their own.

"If Sam Altman and the present OpenAI Inc. Board of Directors 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," he said.

The day after President Trump was inaugurated in January, Altman appeared alongside the new president and other business leaders to unveil a plan called Stargate to invest up to $500 billion over the next four years in U.S. data centers.

Despite his close relationship with Trump, Musk wasn't part of the announcement.

Hours after the White House news conference, Musk claimed on X that Stargate's backers didn't have the promised money and called Altman "a swindler." Altman disputed Musk's claims.

Even before Musk's latest move, OpenAI faced numerous obstacles in what would be one of the biggest ever conversions of a charity to a for-profit company. Rival Meta Platforms sent a letter to California's attorney general in December expressing its opposition to the plan. And OpenAI is locked in negotiations with Microsoft and other stakeholders over how much equity they should receive in the new company.

OpenAI has pledged to complete the transition by late 2026 as part of a $6.6 billion funding round in October that valued it at $157 billion.

It is separately in talks to raise up to $40 billion in a new funding round that would value the company as high as $300 billion, The Wall Street Journal reported last month. Japanese conglomerate SoftBank would lead the round and is in discussions to invest between $15 billion and $25 billion." [1]

 
1. Musk Group Seeks OpenAI Control --- Offer of $97.4 billion complicates CEO's plan to shift it to for-profit company. Toonkel, Jessica; Berber, Jin.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 11 Feb 2025: A1.

 

Zelensky and Nausėda mock and deceive US President Trump

 Zelensky began. He offered President Trump to give Ukraine's land resources, which Zelensky had already sold to other foreigners. You hear, you are a businessman, greedy, so we will give you a bribe, and you will give us weapons. Everyone in Ukraine is afraid of Zelensky. No one is laughing.

 

Nausėda joined poor Zelensky. He came up with a more insidious plan. He asked the Lithuanian military when they dream of having a division in Lithuania, and how many euros are needed for this. He divided the amount of money by the number of years, and the result was a fantastic number of billions of euros every year, so a big number that we do not have and will never have. Nausėda informed President Trump: we, Lithuania, also have a bribe for you - we will buy American military industry products for these fantastic amounts of money every year [1].

 

No one in Lithuania is afraid of Nausėda. Now the Prime Minister and the Speaker of the Seimas have announced that there is no such money in Lithuania and there will never be, that neither of them promised anything, that this is Nausėda's fabrication.

 

What will be President Trump's response to the two frauds of Zelensky and Nausėda?

 

1. "The Lithuanian opposition criticizes Prime Minister Gintautas Paluckas' statement that it is not established in any agreement that this Government will allocate 5-6 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) for defense needs. According to Viktorija Čmilytė-Nielsen, the chairwoman of the Liberal Movement, such words can be seen as the coalition's retreat from the decisions of the State Defense Council (VGT).

 

"Žemaitaitis was supposed to change the rhetoric on defense, but Paluckas changed it? This is how it seems after the meeting in the Government, when we already hear from the Prime Minister that there is no commitment to 5-6 percent for defense anywhere. So, those who expected the Prime Minister to discipline the coalition partner seem to have received the opposite effect, now the Prime Minister is expressing doubts about the 5-6 percent goal," - V. Čmilytė-Nielsen wrote on Facebook.

 

"Can these words already be seen as the coalition's retreat from what was decided by VGT? The more meetings, the more uncertainty. Although it should be the opposite. But we will probably see this throughout the term, when there are such partners and such different personal goals. The state will wait,” she added.

 

A. Anušauskas: a coalition of fools’ will

 

For his part, former Minister of National Defense, conservative Arvydas Anušauskas, raises questions about whether such a decision was really made by the VGT.

 

“A coalition of fools’ will. Prime Minister Gintautas Paluckas claims that no document records the decision of the State Defense Council to allocate 5 or 6 percent of the gross domestic product for defense annually for the period 2026–2030, as announced by President Gitanas Nausėda.

Well, if I had not been a VGT before, I might have believed it. However, VGT resolutions for each issue are formalized in a separate resolution, which is approved by all VGT members,” A. Anušauskas wrote on Facebook.

 

“So far, the picture is as if state institutions are being deliberately compromised,” he mused.

 

The fact that the goal of allocating larger amounts of defense funding is not established in either the Government Program or the coalition agreement was stated by Prime Minister G. Paluckas earlier on Monday after the coalition council meeting. This was also said later by the Speaker of the Seimas, Saulius Skvernelis.

 

“There is no such agreement regarding 5–6 percent of GDP for defense. We can only agree when we see the measures,” said G. Paluckas.

 

ELTA reminds that the State Defense Council (SDC), which met in January, agreed to allocate 5–6 percent of GDP annually for the country’s defense in the period 2026–2030.

 

According to the head of state, Gitanas Nausėda, the 5.5 percent of GDP funding level should be maintained during the aforementioned four-year period.

 

Additional appropriations, according to the decision of the VGT, are needed in order to form an army division in Lithuania by 2030.

 

After the Government increased the borrowing limit for national defense needs in December, this year's defense appropriations will reach only 4 percent of GDP."

 

Zelenskis ir Nausėda tyčiojasi iš JAV prezidento Trumpo ir jį apgaudinėja

Pradėjo Zelenskis. Jis pasiūle prezidentui Trumpui atiduoti Ukrainos žemės turtus, kuriuos Zelenskis jau anksčiau pardavė kitiems užsieniečiams. Girdi, tu esi verslininkas, godus, todėl mes tau duosime kyšį, o tu mums - ginklų. Zelenskio visi Ukrainoje bijo. Niekas nesijuokia.

Nausėda prisijungė prie vargšo Zelenskio.  Jis sugalvojo klastingesnį planą.  Paklausė Lietuvos kariuomenę, kada ji svajoja turėti Lietuvoje diviziją, ir kiek tam reikia eurų. Padalino pinigų sumą iš metų skaičiaus, gavosi fantastiškai daug milijardų eurų kasmet, tiek, kiek mes neturime ir niekad neturėsime. Nausėda pranešė prezidentui Trumpui: mes, Lietuva, tau turime taip pat kyšį - pirksime amerikiečių karo pramonės produkciją už šias fantastiškas sumas kasmet [1].

Nausėdos Lietuvoje niekas nebijo. Dabar premjeras ir Seimo pirmininkas paskelbė, kad tokių pinigų Lietuvoje nėra ir niekad nebus, kad jie abu nieko nežadėjo, kad čia yra Nausėdos išmislas.

Koks bus prezidento Trumpo atsakymas dviems apgavikams?

1. "Opozicija kritikuoja premjero Gintauto Palucko pareiškimą, esą jokiame susitarime nėra įtvirtinta, jog ši Vyriausybė gynybos reikmėms skirs 5–6 proc. nuo bendrojo vidaus produkto (BVP). Pasak Liberalų sąjūdžio pirmininkės Viktorijos Čmilytės-Nielsen, tokius žodžius galima vertinti kaip koalicijos atsitraukimą nuo Valstybės gynimo tarybos (VGT) sprendimų.

„Retoriką dėl gynybos turėjo pakeisti Žemaitaitis, bet pakeitė Paluckas? Taip atrodo po susitikimo Vyriausybėje, kuomet jau iš premjero girdime, kad dėl 5–6 proc. gynybai niekur nėra įsipareigota. Taigi, tie kas tikėjosi, kad premjeras sudrausmins koalicijos partnerį, panašu, kad sulaukė priešingo efekto, dabar jau premjeras išsako abejones dėl 5–6 proc. tikslo“, – feisbuke rašė V. Čmilytė-Nielsen.

„Ar šiuos žodžius jau galima vertinti kaip koalicijos atsitraukimą nuo to, kas buvo nuspręsta VGT? Kuo daugiau susitikimų, tuo daugiau neapibrėžtumo. Nors turėtų būti priešingai. Bet tai turbūt matysime visą kadenciją, kai tokie partneriai ir tokie skirtingi jų asmeniniai tikslai. Valstybė palauks“, – pridūrė ji.

A. Anušauskas: durniaus voliojimo koalicija

Savo ruožtu buvęs krašto apsaugos ministras konservatorius Arvydas Anušauskas kelia klausimus, ar tikrai buvo priimtas toks VGT sprendimas.

„Durniaus voliojimo koalicija. Premjeras Gintautas Paluckas teigia, kad jokiame dokumente nėra fiksuotas Valstybės gynimo tarybos apsisprendimas gynybai 2026–2030 metų periodui kasmet skirti po 5 ar 6 proc. nuo bendrojo vidaus produkto, kaip kad paskelbė prezidentas Gitanas Nausėda. Na, jei nebūčiau anksčiau buvęs VGT, tai gal ir patikėčiau. Tačiau kiekvienam klausimui skirti VGT nutarimai įforminami atskiru nutarimu, kuris yra visų VGT narių patvirtinamas“, – feisbuke rašė A. Anušauskas.

„Kol kas toks vaizdelis, lyg būtų tyčia kompromituojamos valstybės institucijos“, – svarstė jis.

Apie tai, kad tikslas skirti didesnes gynybos finansavimo sumas nėra įtvirtintas nei Vyriausybės programoje, nei koalicijos susitarime, kiek anksčiau pirmadienį po koalicinės tarybos posėdžio sakė premjeras G. Paluckas. Apie tai vėliau kalbėjo ir Seimo pirmininkas Saulius Skvernelis.

„Dėl 5–6 proc. nuo BVP gynybai, tokio susitarimo nėra. Galime pritarti tik kai matome priemones“, – teigė G. Paluckas.

ELTA primena, kad sausio mėnesį posėdžiavusi Valstybės gynimo taryba (VGT) sutarė 2026-2030 metų laikotarpiu šalies gynybai skirti 5-6 proc. nuo BVP kasmet. 

Šalies vadovo Gitano Nausėdos teigimu, per minėtą ketverių metų laikotarpį turėtų būti išlaikytas 5,5 proc. BVP finansavimo lygis.

Papildomi asignavimai, VGT sprendimu, reikalingi, norint iki 2030 m. Lietuvoje suformuoti kariuomenės diviziją.

Gruodį Vyriausybei padidinus skolinimosi limitą krašto apsaugos reikmėms, šįmet asignavimai gynybai sieks 4 proc. nuo BVP."