Elon Musk offers $100 billion to buy OpenAI, renames himself Harry Bōlz

Elon Musk has stepped up his war against OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman by gathering a posse of investors, making an bid to purchase the erstwhile non-profit for almost $100 billion and, erm, changing his name to Harry Bōlz.

The billionaire's xAI made the bid along with backers including Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale and Ari Emanuel, CEO of the entertainment firm Endeavor.

“At xAI, we live by the values I was promised OpenAI would follow," Musk said in a statement. "We’ve made Grok open source, and we respect the rights of content creators.

“It’s time for OpenAI to return to the open-source, safety-focused force for good it once was. We will make sure that happens.”

OpenAI started out as a non-profit but has been trying to restructure itself. It it already operates a full profit subsidiary and it's fair to say that Altman is not exactly living in monk-like austerity, which you can see in the tweet below about his Koenigsegg Regera, which costs somewhere in the region of $2 million.

“If Sam Altman and the present OpenAI 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,” said Marc Toberoff, an attorney representing the investors.

Soon after the news broke, Altman took to X and wrote: "No thank you but we will buy Twitter for $9.74 billion if you want.”

Musk then responded: "Swindler."

Musk was a co-founder of OpenAI, leaving the company in 2019 and founding xAI.

He sued OpenAI in 2024, claiming it betrayed its nonprofit mission by prioritising profit through its partnership with Microsoft. The lawsuit was dismissed but later revived.

OpenAI has argued that restructuring is crucial for its long-term survival and access to capital. It stated that maintaining its current nonprofit structure would hinder its ability to compete in the fast-paced AI industry. The company aims to complete the restructuring by 2026.

“OpenAI is not for sale,” Altman told Axios at the AI Action Summit in Paris. “OpenAI’s mission is not for sale - to say nothing of the fact that, like, a competitor who is not able to beat us in the market and you know, instead is just trying to say, like, ‘I’m gonna buy this” with total disregard for the mission is a likely path there.”

READ MORE: Is Elon Musk trying to meme Gamergate back into existence?

Commenting on the news, Graeme Stewart, head of public sector at Check Point Software, said, "Concerns over AI ownership aren’t just theoretical – we’re already seeing the consequences play out. AI is being weaponised in cyber warfare, and the power to control one of the world’s most advanced systems has massive security implications. Cybersecurity is about security, and that includes protecting the integrity of information itself. 

"This is no different from the long-running debate over newspaper ownership and editorial stance, but the influence is far less visible with AI. Users may not realise how ownership shapes the information they receive – and many don’t think about it because they simply want the tool to work.

"AI is moving so fast that it’s becoming part of daily life before people have the chance to question its influence. If AI is the new printing press, we need to ask—who is holding the pen?

"Some will worry about the impact of a single private owner, but we’ve already seen how national interests dictate AI outputs – DeepSeek’s reluctance to discuss sensitive Chinese topics is just one example. The real risk isn’t just what AI reflects but how it quietly introduces new narratives into society through repeated everyday interactions.

"This isn’t just about business deals or boardroom decisions. It’s about who gets to control the narratives that shape public understanding. If AI is to be a trusted tool, there must be transparency over its biases, and regulators need to act before control over information is concentrated in too few hands."

What does Harry Bolz mean?

Well, in true Elon Musk fashion this is basically a very crude joke. Those of a sensitive disposition should probably look away now.

As far as we know, it's likely to mean "hairy balls". We're not entirely clear on what sort of negotiating tactic this is -but it's certainly an unusual one.

Muskovites will remember that this is not the first time Musk has taken on a rather unusual synonym.

Earlier this year he dubbed himself Kekius Maximus, positioning himself as a kind of Roman lord of the online alt-right.

It remains to be seen whether Harry Bōlz's offer will be more amenable to Sam Altman than Elon Musk's. Watch this space...

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