OpenAI is not for sale, Board tells Elon Musk
SamAltman-run OpenAI on Saturday rejected billionaire Elon Musk’s offer to buy the nonprofit company for $97.4 billion
- SAN FRANCISCO — Sam
Altman-run OpenAI on Saturday rejected billionaire Elon Musk’s offer to buy the
nonprofit company for $97.4 billion.
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- In a statement on X social media platform, Bret Taylor,
Board Chair of OpenAI, called Musk’s bid “an attempt to disrupt his
competition.”
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- “OpenAI is not for sale, and the board has unanimously
rejected Mr. Musk’s latest attempt to disrupt his competition,” Taylor posted.
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- “Any potential reorganisation of OpenAI will strengthen our
nonprofit and its mission to ensure AGI benefits all of humanity,” said Taylor
on behalf of the OpenAI Board of Directors.
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- According to reports, OpenAI has also sent a letter to
Musk’s lawyer, saying that the bid was not in the best interests of its
mission.
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- Earlier this week, Musk’s AI company, xAI, and a group of
investors offered to buy OpenAI’s nonprofit for $97.4 billion.
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- Altman and the company’s board of directors dismissed the
unsolicited proposal.
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- In a statement, Andy Nussbaum, the counsel representing
OpenAI’s board, said Musk’s bid “doesn’t set a value for OpenAI’s nonprofit”
and the nonprofit is “not for sale.”
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- Musk was an OpenAI co-founder and brought a lawsuit against
the company and Altman, alleging that OpenAI engaged in anticompetitive
behaviour and fraud, among other offences.
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- In October last year, Musk filed for a preliminary
injunction against OpenAI for alleged anti-competitive behaviour.
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- The motion for an injunction accused OpenAI, its CEO Altman,
President Greg Brockman, Microsoft, LinkedIn co-founder and former OpenAI board
member Reid Hoffman, and former OpenAI board member and Microsoft VP Dee
Templeton of “various illicit activities and seeks to halt them”.
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- The allegations also included converting OpenAI’s governance
structure to a for-profit and “transferring any material assets, including
intellectual property owned, held, or controlled by OpenAI, Inc., its
subsidiaries, or affiliates.”
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- OpenAI said in a statement that “Elon’s fourth attempt,
which again recycles the same baseless complaints, continues to be utterly
without merit.”
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