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OpenAI\u2019s board of directors has \u201cunanimously\u201d rejected billionaire Elon Musk\u2019s offer to buy the nonprofit that effectively governs OpenAI, the company said on Friday. <\/p>\n
In a statement<\/a> shared via OpenAI\u2019s press account on X, Bret Taylor, board chair, called Musk\u2019s bid \u201can attempt to disrupt his competition.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOpenAI is not for sale, and the board has unanimously rejected Mr. Musk\u2019s latest attempt to disrupt his competition,\u201d Taylor said. \u201cAny potential reorganization of OpenAI will strengthen our nonprofit and its mission to ensure [artificial general intelligence] benefits all of humanity.\u201d<\/p>\n The New York Times reported<\/a> that OpenAI also sent a letter to Musk\u2019s lawyer, Marc Toberoff, saying that the bid was \u201cnot in the best interests of [OpenAI\u2019s] mission.\u201d<\/p>\n On Monday, Musk, his AI company, xAI, and a group of\u00a0investors<\/a>\u00a0offered to buy OpenAI\u2019s nonprofit for $97.4 billion. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and the company\u2019s board of directors\u00a0quickly \u2014 but not formally \u2014 dismissed the unsolicited proposal<\/a>. In a\u00a0statement<\/a>, Andy Nussbaum, the counsel representing OpenAI\u2019s board, said Musk\u2019s bid \u201cdoesn\u2019t set a value for [OpenAI\u2019s] nonprofit\u201d and that the nonprofit is \u201cnot for sale.\u201d<\/p>\n Musk, an OpenAI co-founder, last year brought a lawsuit against the company and Altman that alleges that OpenAI engaged in anticompetitive behavior and fraud, among other offenses.<\/p>\n OpenAI was founded as a nonprofit before it transitioned to a \u201ccapped-profit\u201d structure in 2019. The nonprofit is the sole controlling shareholder of the capped-profit OpenAI corporation, which retains formal fiduciary responsibility to the nonprofit\u2019s charter.\u00a0OpenAI is now in the process of restructuring \u2014 this time to a traditional for-profit company, specifically a public benefit corporation. But Musk, via the lawsuit, is seeking to enjoin the conversion.<\/p>\n In a court filing on Wednesday, lawyers for Musk said the billionaire will withdraw his bid<\/a> if OpenAI\u2019s board \u201cpreserve[s] the charity\u2019s mission\u201d and halts OpenAI\u2019s conversion to a for-profit. In a\u00a0filing earlier the same day<\/a>, attorneys for OpenAI called Musk\u2019s move to take control of the company \u201can improper bid to undermine a competitor,\u201d and a contradiction of his position in court that a transfer of the startup\u2019s assets through restructuring would breach its mission as a charitable trust.<\/p>\n Musk\u2019s allies and Altman have traded blows over the bid this week. In a podcast interview<\/a> on Thursday, Ari Emanuel, one of the backers of Musk\u2019s offer for the OpenAI nonprofit, called Altman a \u201cphony\u201d who is \u201ctrying to get away with cheating the charity and its original mission.\u201d\u00a0Altman has characterized<\/a> Musk\u2019s bid as \u201can attempt to slow [OpenAI] down,\u201d and quipped that Musk\u2019s life is \u201cfrom a position of insecurity.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n