Associated Press
Elon Musk says that if ChatGpt makers remove plans to convert into for-profit companies, they will waive a $97.4 billion offer to buy the nonprofit behind Openai.
“Musk withdraws the bid if the board of directors of Openai, Inc. is prepared to maintain the mission of the charity and provide provisions to halt conversion and register assets “for sale” “The billionaire lawyer came to California court on Wednesday.
“If not, the charity must be compensated by what the length of the weapon buyer pays for the asset.”
Musk and the investor group made their offer earlier this week, adding their latest twist to the controversy with an artificial intelligence company he found 10 years ago.
Openai is managed by a non-profit committee bound by its original mission to safely build AI better than humans in the public interest. It is currently a rapidly growing business, and last year announced plans to officially change its corporate structure.
Musk and his own consortium of AI startups, Xai and investment companies hope to gain control over a nonprofit organization in a subsidiary of for-profit organization Openai.
Openai CEO Sam Altman immediately rejected an unsolicited bid in a social media post, informing the questioner at AI’s Paris Summit that the company was not on sale. The chairman of Openai’s board of directors, Bret Taylor, reflected those remarks at the event Wednesday.
Musk and Altman helped launch Open Alliance in 2015, and later competed over who should lead it before Musk stepped down from the board in 2018.
Musk once again criticised Altman’s executives on Thursday in a video call to the World Government Summit in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, aiming to make Amazon’s rainforest “a timber company that cuts down trees.” It explained that it is similar to a nonprofit organization. Altman repeatedly rebutted that Musk’s legal challenges to Openai were motivated by his role as a competitor.
Musk is asking a California federal judge to block Openai’s commercial conversions on allegations ranging from breach of contract to antitrust violations. The judge has expressed skepticism about some of the Musk arguments, but has not yet issued a ruling.
Original issue: February 13th, 2025, 12:45pm EST
