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Elon Musk once backed a $10 billion OpenAI ICO, internal notes show
Internal OpenAI call notes show Elon Musk agreed to explore an ICO with a for-profit arm in early 2018, but later dropped the idea and exited the organization.
Jan 17, 2026, 6:35 a.m.
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What to know:
- Newly released internal notes show that Elon Musk initially backed, then abandoned, a plan for OpenAI to raise about $10 billion through an initial coin offering in early 2018.
- The discussions reveal that OpenAI’s founders seriously considered a token-based, for-profit arm to fund the nonprofit’s mission at the height of the 2017–18 ICO boom.
- Musk’s decision to walk away from the ICO idea and later leave OpenAI helped set the stage for the organization’s current structure, which combines a public benefit corporation with a controlling nonprofit.
Internal notes from early discussions between Elon Musk and the founders of OpenAI show that Musk briefly supported the idea of an initial coin offering (ICO) as a way to fund the organization, before abandoning the plan and ultimately leaving the project.
According to call transcripts published as part of OpenAI’s response to Musk’s lawsuit, talks in January 2018 included Musk agreeing that OpenAI should pursue an ICO to raise roughly $10 billion.
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The released notes show Musk and other founders discussing the mechanics of creating a for-profit arm — including the ICO — to support the nonprofit’s mission.
By the end of the month, however, OpenAI founders said Musk no longer backed the approach. OpenAI said Musk had concluded the organization would not be able to raise sufficient funding and decided to focus on artificial intelligence work at Tesla instead.
The episode offers an intriguing glimpse into early crypto thinking at the intersection of AI and blockchain. ICOs were a common fundraising mechanism in 2017–18 before regulatory scrutiny and market volatility slowed their popularity.
The 2017–18 crypto boom was defined by ICO fever, when startups raised billions by selling tokens directly to the public. Regulatory rules were unclear, investor appetite was high and token sales were pitched as a faster alternative to venture capital before the market cooled and scrutiny intensified.
OpenAI’s internal discussion reflects how token-based funding was seriously considered even by mainstream tech figures before the model fell out of favor.
Musk’s departure from OpenAI later in 2018 left the organization to pursue a mission structure combining a public benefit corporation and a controlling nonprofit, a model it still uses today.
The ICO discussions have resurfaced in the context of legal filings, offering fresh insight into a pivotal moment in OpenAI’s early evolution.
