A consortium of investors led by Elon Musk is offering $97.4 billion to buy the nonprofit that controls Microsoft-backed (MSFT) OpenAI, The Wall Street Journal reported late Monday.

Musk's attorney, Marc Toberoff, has submitted a bid for all of the nonprofit's assets to OpenAI's board Monday, the news report said. Musk is the controlling shareholder and founder of xAI and also leads the Department of Government Efficiency under the Trump administration.

OpenAI should return to the open-source, safety-focused origins," Musk reportedly said in a statement provided by Toberoff to WSJ.

Sam Altman, co-founder of OpenAI rejected the offer in a post on X. Instead, Altman mad a counter offer of $9.74 billion for the microblogging platform.

OpenAI is set to receive a $40 billion primary investment from SoftBank at a $260 billion pre-money valuation, CNBC reported earlier this month, citing sources.

Last month, President Donald Trump announced a $500 billion artificial intelligence infrastructure program. SoftBank, OpenAI, Oracle (ORCL), and MGX are the initial equity funders of Stargate, the AI infrastructure project.

Arm Holdings (ARM), Microsoft, and Nvidia (NVDA) are among the key technology partners for the project that did not involve any direct participation from Musk or his companies.

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