A consortium led by Elon Musk has made an unsolicited $97.4 billion bid to acquire the non-profit entity controlling OpenAI, marking a dramatic escalation in the ongoing dispute between the billionaire and his former company.

The bid, announced on Monday, threatens to complicate OpenAI's planned transition from a non-profit to a for-profit organisation, a move that chief executive officer Sam Altman says is necessary to secure capital for developing advanced AI models.

"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," Musk said in a statement accompanying the bid.

Musk, who co-founded OpenAI in 2015 as an investor before departing to launch rival artificial intelligence company xAI, has been a vocal critic of the organisation's shift towards commercialisation. His consortium includes Baron Capital Group, Emanuel Capital and others.

Altman swiftly dismissed the offer on the Musk-owned social media platform X, writing: "no thank you but we will buy twitter for $9.74 billion if you want."

The offer comes amid OpenAI's efforts to restructure, with the company currently in talks to raise up to $40 billion in funding from SoftBank Group at a valuation of $300 billion. The company was valued at $157 billion in its last funding round.

OpenAI was founded as a non-profit research organisation focused on developing artificial intelligence that would benefit humanity. However, in 2019, the company created a for-profit subsidiary to help fund its research and development. The current restructuring aims to convert the entire organisation into a for-profit entity by 2026.

Through his attorney Marc Toberoff, Musk has argued that if OpenAI's leadership intends to become 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."

The bid follows Musk's lawsuit filed in August last year, which claimed OpenAI's leadership violated contract provisions by prioritising profit over public good in advancing AI technology.

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