By Arsheeya Bajwa

Feb 10 (Reuters) - A consortium led by Elon Musk offered

$97.4 billion to buy the nonprofit that controls OpenAI, the

Wall Street Journal reported on Monday, months after the

billionaire sued the artificial intelligence startup to block it

from transitioning to a for-profit firm.

Musk's bid could ratchet up longstanding tensions between

himself and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman over the future of the startup

at the heart of a boom in generative AI technology.

The two are already embroiled in an ongoing lawsuit. Musk

criticized a massive, $500 billion OpenAI-led project called

Stargate announced with great fanfare at the White House just

after President Donald Trump returned to office, suggesting the

investors involved lacked the funding for the project.

Musk's attorney, Marc Toberoff, said he submitted the bid to

OpenAI's board on Monday, according to the report.

"It's time for OpenAI to return to the open-source,

safety-focused force for good it once was," the WSJ cited Musk

as saying in a statement provided by Toberoff. "We will make

sure that happens."

OpenAI, Musk, Toberoff and OpenAI backer Microsoft ( MSFT )

did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment.

The bid is being backed by Musk's AI company xAI, which

could merge with OpenAI following a deal, the WSJ reported.

Musk cofounded OpenAI with Altman in 2015, but left before

the company took off. He founded the competing AI startup xAI in

2023.

OpenAI is now trying to transition into a for-profit from a

nonprofit entity, which it says is required to secure the

capital needed for developing the best artificial intelligence

models.

Musk's lawsuit against OpenAI and Altman says the founders

originally approached him to fund a nonprofit focused on

developing AI to benefit humanity, but that it was now focused

on making money.