Altman Counters Musk's Bid To Buy OpenAI With Offer To Purchase X: 'No Thank You But ...'

When news broke Monday that Elon Musk is leading an investment group to acquire Open AI for $97.4 billion, CEO Sam Altman used Musk's X platform to deliver a scathing response.

"No thank you," Altman posted, "but we will buy Twitter (X) for $9.74 billion if you want."

The reference to Musk's 2022 purchase of the social media platform for $44 billion drew a reaction from the world's wealthiest person: "Swindler," was Musk's one-word response.

The war of words is the latest in a long rivalry between the two tech billionaires. Musk co-founded OpenAI in 2015 but left to form his own artificial intelligence company (xAI) in 2023.

Musk has filed numerous lawsuits against OpenAI, which owns the revolutionary startup ChatGPT. Musk has recently gained favor with President Donald Trump as director of DOGE.

Their latest blowup was over the Trump administration's plan to invest $500 billion in an Altman venture along with SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son and Oracle founder Larry Ellison.