Elon Musk’s not-so-friendly bid to buy OpenAI for $97.4 billion caught many in the tech world by surprise, but it’s just the latest shot in a yearslong battle between Musk and Sam Altman, who co-founded OpenAI together nearly 10 years ago.

The OpenAI CEO quickly rejected the deal on Musk’s X platform, saying, “no thank you but we will buy Twitter for $9.74 billion if you want.”

Sam Altman is leaving no room for doubt about his views on an Elon Musk-led bid to take control of OpenAI. In a letter to OpenAI staff Monday, the CEO put the words “bid” and “deal” in scare quotes and said the startup’s board has no interest in the offer.

In an interview with Bloomberg, Altman says OpenAI is “not for sale” and the bid is the latest of “tactics, many, many lawsuits, all sorts of other crazy stuff, now this” for the “competitor” Musk to “slow us down.

Last March, Musk filed a lawsuit claiming OpenAI, a global leader in artificial intelligence innovation which has developed the ChatGPT chatbot, DALL-E image generator and other advanced AI-driven tools, breached promises made in its founding documents and prioritizes profit motive over serving the public good.

"No thank you but we will buy twitter for $9.74 billion if you want," wrote Altman on social media. Altman's offer to take over X is one-tenth of the price offered by Musk to buy OpenAI. This reflects the company's devaluation. In 2022, Musk took over X for $44 billion.

Elon Musk has been extremely busy since Donald Trump’s return to the White House. His position as head of the newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has kept him in the spotlight as questions arise about the reach of his newfound power.

The only fight more hostile than Elon Musk vs. the federal bureaucracy may be Elon Musk vs. Sam Altman, the CEO of ChatGPT maker OpenAI. Why it matters: The victor could help determine the future direction of the world's most powerful technology.