SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – Openai says the board has unanimously rejected Elon Musk’s $97.4 billion purchase bid.
“Openai is not on sale. The board unanimously rejected its latest attempt to disrupt Musk’s competition,” a statement from Openai’s chairman, Bret Taylor, said. .
Openai Attorney William Savitt said in a letter to Musk’s attorney on Friday that the proposal was “refused not in the best interests of Oai’s mission.”
Musk, an early Openai investor, launched a legal attack on ChatGpt makers almost a year ago, saying it was a betrayal of the goal of establishing as a nonprofit that he supported 10 years ago. I sued for sueing this.
Then on Monday, the case still awaited a significant ruling, but Musk and his own AI startup Xai and a group of investment companies announced a bid to buy the nonprofit that manages Openai did. Musk filed Wednesday in the court expanded its proposal to gain control of a nonprofit organization in its for-profit Open I subsidiary.
Savitt’s letter said Friday that the submission added “new material conditions to the proposal.” The filing revealed that the client’s much-published “bids” were not actually bids at all. “In any case, “as presented at the beginning,” the board unanimously refused it, Savitt said.
Musk in his lawsuit alleges that the company violates the terms of his basic contribution to the charity. Musk had invested around $45 million in startups until 2018, his lawyer said.
He escalated the legal dispute late last year, adding new claims and defendants including Openai’s business partner Microsoft, and seeking a court order to halt Openai’s plans, completely converting it into a for-profit business. I asked for that. Musk also added Xai as plaintiff, claiming Openai is also unfairly stifling business competition. The judge is still considering the mask request, but expressed skepticism about some of his claims at a court hearing last week.
Original issue: February 14th, 2025, 5:31pm EST
