OpenAI Rejects Elon Musk's $97.4 Billion Takeover Bid, Considers Governance Reforms

Elon Musk's $97 Billion Takeover Bid Rejected as OpenAI Strengthens Governance

OpenAI is considering granting special voting rights to its nonprofit board members to prevent external takeovers. This move follows Elon Musk's $97.4 billion acquisition bid, which OpenAI rejected, citing concerns about preserving its mission and strategic direction. The decision marks a significant step in OpenAI's transition to a profit-driven model while maintaining governance stability. The nonprofit OpenAI received a multimillion-dollar proposition of $97.4 billion from Elon Musk for its acquisition. His bid aims to halt transition to a profit-driven model. Musk's team foresees a harmful effect on the company's future expansion and the AI market environment through this decision. OpenAI refused Musk's $97.4 billion offer because the acquisition did not support the organization's purpose and future objectives. Musk his disapproval through social media channels after receiving a denial. Improper fund management at OpenAI bothered Musk who directly pointed his criticism towards board member Bret Taylor while asserting the company had inadequate use of funds for their AI projects. OpenAI rejected Musk's offer yet tensions with the founder continue to increase due to his previous involvement with the company and his desire to impact its strategic direction.

OpenAI Considers Governance Shift as Sam Altman Resists Elon Musk's $97B Takeover

Now, the ChatGPT developer is considering governance reforms to prevent further hostile takeover attempts. Following Elon Musk's attempt to buy the nonprofit that controls OpenAI, the company rejected Musk's offer on Friday, Feb. 14, insisting that the ChatGPT developer isn't for sale. Now, in an attempt to stave off further takeover attempts, OpenAI's board is said to be considering governance reforms that would grant its directors special voting rights. OpenAI Rejects Musk's $97B Takeover Bid The initial move to buy OpenAI Inc. occurred on Monday, Feb. 10, when a consortium of investors led by Musk submitted a $97.4 billion offer for the nonprofit's assets. Musk's lawyers claimed the aggressive takeover bid was aimed at realigning OpenAI with its original open-source and safety-centric mission, which Musk believes has shifted toward profit-driven motives. However, OpenAI's board unanimously rejected the proposal, emphasizing their commitment to independence. Meanwhile, in a message to employees, CEO Sam Altman dismissed Musk's "tactics" as an attempt to weaken OpenAI, "because we are making great progress." Proposed Governance Reforms In response to Musk's takeover attempt, OpenAI is reportedly evaluating governance changes to fortify its autonomy. One measure under consideration is the implementation of special voting rights for its nonprofit board. While the company has not revealed details of the proposed changes, such structural adjustments could empower the board to override decisions by major investors, the Financial Times reported . Elon Musk's Motives Although Musk claimed his bid was genuine, many observers believe he had an ulterior motive. By raising the perceived value of OpenAI's nonprofit arm, the bid could increase the startup's financial obligations as Altman and the board attempt to convert it to a for-profit enterprise. Although he co-founded OpenAI with Altman in 2015, Musk has vehemently opposed its transition, which is subject to ongoing litigation brought by Musk and his rival AI company xAI. On Monday, Feb. 17, xAI released its latest Chatbot Grok 3 -- an alternative to ChatGPT that Musk claims is superior but which lags well behind in adoption.

OpenAI's Board 'Unanimously' Rejects $97bn Musk Takeover Bid

OpenAI's board of directors has "unanimously" rejected a bid by Tesla CEO Elon Musk to buy the nonprofit that governs the ChatGPT firm. The news comes after Musk and a consortium of investors, including Musk's own AI firm, xAI, submitted an unsolicited bid to buy OpenAI earlier this week for $97.4 billion, a move first reported by The Wall Street Journal. OpenAI Chairperson Bret Taylor dubbed the offer by Musk an "attempt to disrupt his competition," adding that "OpenAI is not for sale" in a statement on behalf of the board. "Any potential reorganization of OpenAI will strengthen our nonprofit and its mission to ensure AGI benefits all of humanity," he added. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman had already publicly, but informally, turned down the offer, posting "no thank you" on Musk's social media platform, X, before giving an informal counteroffer to buy X for "$9.74 billion if you want." The bid comes as OpenAI is in the process of radically changing its business model. OpenAI started life in 2015 as a nonprofit entity before later adopting a hybrid model in 2019, consisting of a nonprofit and a for-profit subsidiary. But it's currently in the process of transitioning its for-profit division, into a Delaware Public Benefit Corporation a particular type of corporate structure whereby a company must balance making a profit for shareholders and public benefit. Musk -- one of OpenAI's earliest investors -- has been one of the harshest critics of its current direction. Musk first opened a lawsuit against OpenAI and Altman in March 2023, alleging a breach of contract over their for-profit transition. The allegations have piled up from Musk's team, later expanding the case to include "racketeering activity" and false advertising, and eventually adding its largest investor, Microsoft, to the proceedings. In a court filing posted earlier this week, Musk's legal team offered to drop the unsolicted takeover offer if OpenAI was "prepared to preserve the charity's mission and stipulate to take the "for sale" sign off its assets by halting its conversion." Aside from the legal action, Musk is now increasingly becoming a direct competitor of OpenAI. His AI firm, xAI -- which produces X's Grok chatbot -- plans to expand its Colossus supercomputer in Memphis, Tennessee, to one million GPUs. Meanwhile, Bloomberg reports that xAI is canvassing investors for another funding round, which would take its total raised to $22.4 billion. Musk's $97.4 billion offer might be low for a company in OpenAI's position according to some investors. The Wall Street Journal reported last month that OpenAI was in talks about a funding round that would value the company at as much as $340 billion, over three times what Musk's team offered.

OpenAI Mulls Voting Rights to Guard Against Hostile Takeovers: Report

On Friday, OpenAI rejected a $97.4 billion acquisition bid led by Musk OpenAI is considering granting special voting rights to its non-profit board to preserve the power of its directors, as the ChatGPT-maker fends off an unsolicited takeover bid from Elon Musk, Financial Times reported on Tuesday. Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman and board members are evaluating new governance measures as the company transitions to a traditional for-profit structure, the report said, citing people with direct knowledge of the discussions. OpenAI did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. While no firm decisions have been made, the move could help OpenAI block future hostile takeover attempts, including from Musk, who co-founded the company with Altman but later departed. On Friday, OpenAI rejected a $97.4 billion (roughly Rs. 8,46,877 crore) acquisition offer from a consortium led by Musk, saying the startup is not for sale and dismissing any future bids as disingenuous. Musk's offer is his latest effort to prevent OpenAI from becoming a profit-driven company as it seeks more funding to stay competitive in the artificial intelligence race. If implemented, the special voting rights would allow the non-profit board to overrule major investors, including backers like Microsoft and SoftBank, ensuring it retains decision-making power, the report said. © Thomson Reuters 2025

OpenAI considers special voting rights to fend off hostile bidders such as Musk

OpenAI is considering granting special voting rights to its non-profit board in order to preserve the power of its directors, as the $157bn start-up fends off an unsolicited takeover bid from Elon Musk. Chief executive Sam Altman and other board members are weighing a range of new governance mechanisms after OpenAI converts into a more conventional for-profit company, according to people with direct knowledge of the discussions. Giving the non-profit's board outsized voting power would ensure it retained control of the restructured company and was able to over-rule other investors including existing backers such as Microsoft and SoftBank. While no firm decisions have been made, special voting rights would also ensure OpenAI can fight off hostile bids from outsiders such as Musk. The billionaire made a surprise $97.4bn cash bid for the assets held by the non-profit, including its controlling stake in the start-up's for-profit subsidiary. Special voting rights could keep power in the hands of its not-profit arm in future and so address the Tesla chief's criticisms that Altman and OpenAI have moved away from their original mission of creating powerful AI for the benefit of humanity. The ChatGPT-maker is in the midst of a complex conversion from a non-profit research organisation to a more conventional for-profit business known as a public benefit corporation (PBC). Its executives argue the shift would allow it to receive billions of dollars more investment as it races rivals such as Google to build the technology, while potentially unlocking greater returns for investors. OpenAI is also in talks to raise $40bn from an investment group led by SoftBank at a valuation of $260bn. The San Francisco-based group's plans have come under fire from Musk, who co-founded OpenAI and donated tens of millions of dollars before leaving its board in 2018 in a fallout with Altman. He said at an event in Dubai last week that "OpenAI is trying to completely delete the non-profit, [and] that seems too far." The comments come as the board seeks to find a fair price for the non-profit's assets and decide what role its charitable arm should play in the PBC. The FT has previously reported that OpenAI has discussed trading the non-profit's assets for $30bn, paid largely in equity in the PBC. Musk's $97.4bn offer implies that OpenAI is vastly underpricing the deal. To complete the conversion, the attorney-general of Delaware -- where OpenAI is incorporated -- must decide whether the transaction represents fair value and is for the public benefit. People close to OpenAI said the board is under no obligation to sell, or to maximise the valuation of the non-profit's assets in a competitive auction. On Friday, the board unanimously rejected the offer from Musk, calling it his "latest attempt to disrupt his competition." "OpenAI is not for sale," Bret Taylor, chair of OpenAI, added. "Any potential reorganisation of OpenAI will strengthen our non-profit and its mission." "Of course they are putting the charity's assets up for sale. That is what their 'reorganisation' is all about," Musk's attorney, Marc Toberoff, responded in a statement to the FT. "They are just selling it to themselves at a fraction of what Musk has offered, enriching board members in a classic self-dealing transaction. Will someone please explain how that benefits 'all of humanity'?" Carl Tobias, professor at the University of Richmond School of Law, said Musk's bid was unlikely to affect OpenAI's conversion to a PBC. "I think Musk is simply trying to torture Open AI generally and Sam Altman specifically," he said. However, the takeover offer has focused minds at the start-up on how to retain control once a conversion is completed. Silicon Valley groups have often adopted corporate structures that include special voting rights, often to entrench the power of founders. Meta's Mark Zuckerberg has retained control over his company, despite owning less than 15 per cent of the social media group, thanks to his ownership of shares with outsized voting power. Another option that could be considered by OpenAI's board is introducing a shareholder rights plan, or poison pill, which would allow shareholders to buy up additional shares at a discount in order to fend off hostile takeovers. Poison pills were pioneered by lawyer Martin Lipton, co-founder of the firm now advising OpenAI's board, in the 1980s. In 2022, Twitter launched a poison pill defence in a failed attempt to prevent Musk's $44bn buyout of the company. As part of the conversion under discussion, the current board is expected to oversee the PBC. The non-profit will recruit new directors. OpenAI is being advised by Goldman Sachs and M. Klein & Company, who are tasked with ensuring that the conversion into a PBC, with a separate non-profit arm, is fair and responsible, according to multiple people with knowledge of the matter. "A well-thinking board would actually think about [the $97.4bn bid]," said one person with knowledge of OpenAI's deliberations. But, they added, "the board needs to consider the mission and nobody else -- not Sam, not the brand OpenAI, and certainly not Mr Musk."

OpenAI reportedly considering special voting rights for nonprofit

Sam Altman in 2019. Image: Steve Jennings/Getty Images for TechCrunch via Flickr (CC BY 2.0) The potential new measures being considered follow the board's rejection of an unsolicited bid from an Elon Musk-led group. OpenAI may protect its nonprofit board's power by granting it special voting rights in a bid to fend off a hostile takeover from Elon Musk. According to a report in the Financial Times, the company's CEO Sam Altman and the rest of the board members are weighing up new governance measures that could allow the nonprofit board to overrule major investors as the company moves towards a traditional for-profit model. The latest discussions follow OpenAI's decision to officially turn down an offer of $97.4bn from an Elon Musk-led group of investors. Writing on behalf of the OpenAI board of directors, chair Bret Taylor said the board rejected Musk's "latest attempt to disrupt his competition". "OpenAI is not for sale," he wrote in a statement. "Any potential reorganisation of OpenAI will strengthen our nonprofit and its mission to ensure AGI benefits all of humanity." When Musk initially made the offer, he said in a statement through his lawyer that it was time for OpenAI to "return to the open-source, safety-focused force for good it once was". This followed years of feuds with Altman about the direction of the company Musk co-founded, including lawsuits and court orders attempting to block the transition to a for-profit company. Musk then said he would withdraw the offer if OpenAI took the 'for sale' sign down. While the bid has now been formally rejected, it appears the hostile takeover attempt may have still succeeded in its original mission. While Musk has form when it comes to hostile takeovers, the real intention behind the OpenAI bid could have really been about complicating Altman's for-profit plans for OpenAI. His offer to withdraw the bid if the board protects its nonprofit status highlighted this desire, and with a fiduciary responsibility to the nonprofit's charter, it seems the board are now considering how best to protect the beneficiaries of the nonprofit. Meanwhile, Musk remains a key competitor against OpenAI with xAI and its chatbot Grok. Just yesterday (17 February), the man who took over Twitter announced the latest version, Grok 3, which he claimed to be the "smartest AI on Earth". However, the AI is currently in beta mode and still being trained, and extreme claims such as this much be taken with a large grain of salt, especially from the proprietor. Sam Altman in 2019. Image: Steve Jennings/Getty Images for TechCrunch (CC BY 2.0) Don't miss out on the knowledge you need to succeed. Sign up for the Daily Brief, Silicon Republic's digest of need-to-know sci-tech news.

New Details Revealed About Elon Musk's $97.4 Billion OpenAI Bid : Bold Move or Industry Disruption?

Elon Musk's bold $97.4 billion cash offer to acquire OpenAI has ignited a significant debate about the future of artificial intelligence (AI) and the competitive forces shaping the industry. Backed by prominent investors such as xAI Corp, Baron Capital Group, and Valor Management, Musk claims his proposal is aimed at safeguarding OpenAI's nonprofit mission. However, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has firmly rejected the offer, emphasizing the organization's commitment to its founding principles and declaring it is not for sale. This standoff not only highlights the growing rivalry between Musk's xAI and OpenAI but also raises critical questions about the broader implications for the AI sector. But here's the kicker: this isn't just a story about billionaires and boardrooms. It's about the tension between staying true to a mission and navigating the relentless pressures of competition and profit. Musk's bold move, framed as a bid to "protect" OpenAI's nonprofit roots, has sparked questions about his true intentions and the ripple effects on the AI landscape. Meanwhile, Altman's firm rejection of the offer underscores a deeper struggle to maintain independence in an industry where the stakes couldn't be higher. So, what does this all mean for the future of AI -- and for the rest of us watching from the sidelines? Wes Roth investigates and discusses the implications below. Musk's $97.4 billion bid represents more than just a financial proposition -- it is a calculated strategic maneuver. According to Musk's legal team, the offer is framed as a means to protect OpenAI's nonprofit mission, which has been central to its identity since its inception. The timing of the bid is particularly significant, as OpenAI is reportedly exploring structural changes, including a potential shift to a for-profit model. By intervening at this juncture, Musk seeks to influence OpenAI's valuation and decision-making process, potentially slowing its momentum in the highly competitive AI market. The offer from Elon Musk also forces OpenAI's board to formally evaluate the proposal, even if rejection is the likely outcome. This procedural requirement could divert resources and attention from ongoing projects, indirectly benefiting Musk's xAI, which is advancing its own AI model, Grok 3. For Musk, this bid serves as both a challenge to OpenAI and an opportunity to gain use in the rapidly escalating AI arms race. By positioning himself as a protector of OpenAI's mission, Musk also strengthens his narrative as a key player in shaping the ethical future of AI. Sam Altman, OpenAI's CEO, has unequivocally dismissed Musk's offer, describing it as a disruptive tactic rather than a genuine effort to support OpenAI's mission. Altman argues that the bid is designed to destabilize OpenAI's progress and complicate its potential transition to a for-profit structure. Despite the financial magnitude of the offer, Altman has reiterated OpenAI's dedication to its nonprofit roots, even as the organization faces the dual challenges of sustaining growth and driving innovation. Altman's rejection underscores his commitment to protecting OpenAI's independence. By declining Musk's bid, he aims to shield the organization from external influence and ensure its mission-driven objectives remain intact. This decision reflects broader concerns about the risks of allowing external actors to shape the strategic direction of AI research organizations. Altman's stance also highlights the tension between maintaining ethical commitments and navigating the financial realities of innovative AI development. Take a look at other insightful guides from our broad collection that might capture your interest in OpenAI. The rivalry between Musk's xAI and OpenAI exemplifies the intensifying competition within the AI industry. xAI's development of Grok 3, an advanced AI model positioned as a potential market leader, places Musk's company in direct competition with OpenAI. Any delays or distractions caused by Musk's bid could provide xAI with a critical advantage, allowing it to capture market share and strengthen its position in the rapidly evolving AI landscape. This standoff also reflects broader trends and challenges facing the AI sector. As organizations race to develop increasingly sophisticated models, they must grapple with complex questions of governance, transparency, and ethical responsibility. The public scrutiny surrounding Musk's bid underscores the high stakes involved in shaping the future of AI and the need for clear, accountable leadership. Additionally, the situation highlights the tension between nonprofit and for-profit models in AI development. Nonprofit organizations like OpenAI aim to prioritize ethical considerations and public benefit, but the financial demands of innovative research often necessitate structural changes. Musk's bid forces a broader conversation about the role of profit motives in driving AI innovation and the potential trade-offs between financial sustainability and ethical commitments. Musk's offer carries significant implications for OpenAI's valuation and strategic direction. By proposing such a substantial sum, Musk effectively improves OpenAI's market valuation, potentially complicating its transition to a for-profit model. This increased valuation could attract additional scrutiny from investors and stakeholders, further influencing the organization's strategic decisions. Another critical concern is the potential for Elon Musk to gain access to OpenAI's internal data during the due diligence process. Such access could provide Musk with valuable insights into OpenAI's operations, intellectual property, and strategic priorities, potentially giving xAI a competitive edge. Even if the acquisition does not proceed, the bid has already introduced new variables into OpenAI's strategic considerations. If OpenAI were to abandon its for-profit transition in response to Musk's bid, it could inadvertently achieve Musk's stated goal of preserving its nonprofit mission -- without requiring the acquisition to take place. This scenario underscores the complex interplay between financial strategy and ethical governance in the AI sector. Regardless of the outcome, the offer has already reshaped the discourse surrounding OpenAI's future and the broader dynamics of the AI industry.

OpenAI board considers special voting powers to prevent Elon Musk takeover

OpenAI is considering granting new voting rights to its nonprofit board in a move that could help it fight an unsolicited takeover bid from Elon Musk, the Financial Times reported last night. Citing people familiar with the discussions, the FT wrote that CEO "Sam Altman and other board members are weighing a range of new governance mechanisms after OpenAI converts into a more conventional for-profit company." "Giving the nonprofit's board outsized voting power would ensure it retain[s] control of the restructured company and [is] able to over-rule other investors including existing backers such as Microsoft and SoftBank," the FT wrote. "While no firm decisions have been made, special voting rights would also ensure OpenAI can fight off hostile bids from outsiders such as Musk." We contacted OpenAI about the report and will update this article if it provides any comment. Musk and a consortium of investors made a $97.4 billion offer for OpenAI last week. Altman responded that "OpenAI is not for sale" and described Musk as "a competitor who is not able to beat us in the market" and who has "total disregard for [OpenAI's] mission." Altman also wrote a post on the social network now called X that said, "no thank you but we will buy twitter for $9.74 billion if you want." The OpenAI board followed up with a vote unanimously rejecting Musk's offer. Poison pill another option OpenAI was founded as a nonprofit in 2015 and created an additional "capped profit" entity in 2019. Any profit beyond the cap is returned to the nonprofit, OpenAI says. That would change with OpenAI's planned shift to a for-profit public benefit corporation this year. The nonprofit arm would retain shares in the for-profit arm and "pursue charitable initiatives in sectors such as health care, education, and science." Before making his offer, Musk asked a federal court to block OpenAI's conversion from nonprofit to for-profit. The Financial Times article suggests that new voting rights for the nonprofit arm could address the concerns raised by Musk about the for-profit shift. "Special voting rights could keep power in the hands of its nonprofit arm in future and so address the Tesla chief's criticisms that Altman and OpenAI have moved away from their original mission of creating powerful AI for the benefit of humanity," the FT wrote. OpenAI could also consider a poison pill or a shareholder rights plan that would let shareholders "buy up additional shares at a discount in order to fend off hostile takeovers," the FT article said. But it's not clear whether this is a likely option, as the article said it's just one that "could be considered by OpenAI's board." In April 2022, Twitter's board approved a poison pill to prevent a hostile takeover after Musk offered to buy Twitter for $43 billion. But Twitter's board changed course 10 days later when it agreed to a $44 billion deal with Musk.

OpenAI turns down Musk's takeover bid

OpenAI's board of directors has turned down Elon Musk's $97.4 billion bid to buy the nonprofit that controls the artificial intelligence company. "OpenAI is not for sale, and the board has unanimously rejected Mr. Musk's latest attempt to disrupt his competition," OpenAI chairman Bret Taylor said in a post on the social platform X on Friday afternoon. "Any potential reorganization of OpenAI will strengthen our nonprofit and its mission to ensure AGI benefits all of humanity," he added. A group of investors led by Musk made the unsolicited bid for OpenAI earlier this week, amid the AI firm's push to become a for-profit entity. In a court filing Wednesday, the tech billionaire said he would drop the bid if OpenAI halted its for-profit shift. However, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman made clear early on that he was not entertaining the idea, stating "OpenAI is not for sale." "I think he's probably just trying to slow us down. He obviously is a competitor," Altman told Bloomberg's "The Pulse" when asked if he took Musk's bid seriously. Musk's lawyer Marc Toberoff said Friday that he was not surprised OpenAI had rejected the bid but appeared to question whether the board had fulfilled its fiduciary duty to fully consider the offer. "This comes as no surprise, given that Altman and Board chair, Taylor, already rejected Musk's $ 97.4 billion bid while stating they had not yet received it," Toberoff said in a statement. "But we are surprised to see the Board, which has strict fiduciary duties to carefully consider the bid in good faith on behalf of the charity, use the same kind of deflective double-talk Altman used in testifying to the Senate," he continued. Toberoff also pushed back on OpenAI's assertion that it is not for sale amid the for-profit transition. "Of course they're putting the charity's assets (control of the for-profit enterprise) up for sale," he said. "That's what their 'reorganization' is all about." "They're just selling it to themselves at a fraction of what Musk has offered, enriching Board members, Altman, Brockman and others rather than the charity in a classic self-dealing transaction. Will someone please explain how that benefits 'all of humanity'?" he added. OpenAI announced its plans to restructure the company as a public benefit corporation in late December. The AI firm, which started as a non-profit, currently has a unique structure in which its non-profit controls the for-profit entity. Musk, who helped found OpenAI in 2015, has repeatedly sued Altman over the past year for allegedly straying from the original mission to develop AI with safety and transparency in mind.

OpenAI unanimously rejects Elon Musk's $97.4 billion takeover bid

OpenAI says its board of directors has unanimously rejected a $97.4 billion takeover bid by Elon Musk. "OpenAI is not for sale, and the board has unanimously rejected Mr. Musk's latest attempt to disrupt his competition," said a statement Friday from Bret Taylor, chair of OpenAI's board. OpenAI attorney William Savitt in a letter to Musk's attorney Friday said the proposal "is not in the best interests of OAI's mission and is rejected." Musk, an early OpenAI investor, began a legal offensive against the ChatGPT maker nearly a year ago, suing for breach of contract over what he said was the betrayal of its founding aims as a nonprofit he helped found a decade ago. Then on Monday, while that case was still awaiting a key ruling, Musk and his own AI startup, xAI, and a group of investment firms announced a bid to buy the nonprofit that controls OpenAI. Musk in a court filing Wednesday expanded on the proposal to acquire the nonprofit's controlling stake in the for-profit OpenAI subsidiary. Savitt's letter Friday said that filing added "new material conditions to the proposal. As a result of that filing, it is now apparent that your clients' much-publicized 'bid' is in fact not a bid at all." In any event, "even as first presented," the board has unanimously rejected it, Savitt said. Musk has alleged in the lawsuit that the companies are violating the terms of his foundational contributions to the charity. Musk had invested about $45 million in the startup from its founding until 2018, his lawyer has said. He escalated the legal dispute late last year, adding new claims and defendants, including OpenAI's business partner Microsoft, and asking for a court order that would halt OpenAI's plans to more fully convert itself into a for-profit business. Musk also added xAI as a plaintiff, claiming that OpenAI was also unfairly stifling business competition. A judge is still considering Musk's request but expressed skepticism about some of his claims in a court hearing last week.

OpenAI's board rejects Elon Musk's $97.4 billion takeover bid

The ChatGPT-maker's directors accused Musk of making an offer for the company only as a legal maneuver in an ongoing lawsuit against OpenAI. SAN FRANCISCO -- The board of ChatGPT-maker OpenAI unanimously rejected Elon Musk's unsolicited proposal to buy the company, accusing the tech billionaire of using the bid as a legal maneuver in an ongoing court case he has against OpenAI. Musk and a consortium of investors who have supported his ventures in the past offered to buy all the assets of OpenAI for $97.4 billion Monday -- a price well below the valuation the AI firm has received from its investors. On Wednesday, Musk's lawyers said he would drop the bid if OpenAI agreed to end its plan to transition from a nonprofit into a for-profit company, which Musk is currently trying to block through a lawsuit he launched last year. OpenAI lawyer William Savitt wrote in a Friday letter to Musk's attorney Marc Toberoff that Wednesday's filing made clear the acquisition offer wasn't serious. "It is now apparent that your clients' much-publicized 'bid' is in fact not a bid at all," he wrote, in a copy of the letter provided by an OpenAI spokesperson. "In any event, your clients' proposal, even as first presented, is not in the best interests of [OpenAI]'s mission and is rejected," Savitt wrote. Toberoff did not immediately provide a comment. OpenAI, which Musk helped to found -- and fund -- in 2015 before leaving the company in 2018 after clashing with other leaders over control of the company, is trying to transition from a nonprofit with a huge commercial division into a more traditional for-profit company. That nonprofit and its board, sworn to develop AI technology for the benefit of humanity, ultimately controls all of OpenAI's assets and technology. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has said becoming a more conventional tech company is necessary to secure the massive amounts of investment needed for the company to keep up in the expensive race to develop and run ever more capable AI. Leading tech companies like Meta, Google and Microsoft have each committed tens of billions of dollars to the AI race. Musk claims OpenAI's restructuring plan breaks its original commitment to develop technology for the benefit of humanity. He launched his own rival artificial intelligence company, xAI, provider of the chatbot Grok, in 2023.

OpenAI Board Rejects Musk's $97.4 Billion Bid to Control Company

(Bloomberg) -- OpenAI's board of directors has formally rejected an offer from a group of investors led by Elon Musk to buy the nonprofit that controls the artificial intelligence company for $97.4 billion. "OpenAI is not for sale, and the board has unanimously rejected Mr. Musk's latest attempt to disrupt his competition," Bret Taylor, OpenAI's chairman, said in a statement Friday on behalf of the board. Musk, who co-founded OpenAI a decade ago before going on to launch a rival AI startup, enlisted a group of wealthy allies for an unsolicited cash bid to buy the nonprofit's assets. Other backers of the proposal included Valor Equity Partners, Baron Capital, Atreides Management, Vy Capital, Joe Lonsdale's 8VC and Ari Emanuel, through his investment fund. Musk said he hoped to return OpenAI to being "the open-source, safety-focused force for good it once was." Marc Toberoff, a lawyer representing Musk and the investors, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The offer was quickly rebuffed earlier this week by OpenAI Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman, who called it a tactic by a competitor to "slow us down" and stressed that the company is "not for sale." Andrew Nussbaum, a counsel to the OpenAI board, also previously said in a statement that OpenAI was not looking to sell and stressed that the directors' "sole fiduciary duty" is fulfilling the company's mission to build more powerful, hypothetical AI systems called artificial general intelligence (AGI) that benefit humanity. "Respectfully," he said, "it is not up to a competitor to decide what is in the best interests of OpenAI's mission." Musk has repeatedly tried to derail OpenAI's plans to restructure as a more conventional for-profit business. The billionaire filed two lawsuits against OpenAI for allegedly straying from its founding principles and asked a court to block the ChatGPT maker's restructuring efforts. A judge recently said she was reluctant to immediately issue such an order in a case pitting "billionaires versus billionaires." In a court filing following Musk's bid, OpenAI argued that his offer to buy the company undermines the very claim at the heart of his lawsuit -- that its assets can't be "transferred away" for "private gain." Musk's lawyers said in a subsequent legal finding that Musk would withdraw his bid if OpenAI agreed to halt its conversion to a for-profit. "Any potential reorganization of OpenAI will strengthen our nonprofit and its mission to ensure AGI benefits all of humanity," Taylor said in the statement Friday. Regardless of the outcome, Musk's bid is expected to complicate the company's restructuring process at a time when OpenAI is in talks with SoftBank Group Corp. to raise a massive new funding round at a valuation as high as $300 billion. Currently, OpenAI has a for-profit subsidiary that is governed by the nonprofit and its board. As part of the planned corporate shift, the company is expected to pay out a fair value for the nonprofit's assets. Previously, OpenAI said it will compensate the nonprofit in the form of equity. Legal experts have said regulators will be watching for what stake the nonprofit receives. With the $97.4 billion offer, Musk may have just raised the floor for how much OpenAI needs to allocate. "OpenAI's board is on perfectly solid footing to say no to Musk's bid," Robert Bartlett, a professor at the Stanford Law School and co-director of the Rock Center for Corporate Governance, previously told Bloomberg News. "But that doesn't mean they can ignore the ramifications on what the bid means for valuing the assets of OpenAI's nonprofit." If OpenAI assigns a higher value to its nonprofit, that could dilute the equity of OpenAI's current and future investors.

OpenAI weighs special voting rights to guard against hostile takeovers, FT reports

Feb 18 (Reuters) - OpenAI is considering granting special voting rights to its non-profit board to preserve the power of its directors, as the ChatGPT-maker fends off an unsolicited takeover bid from Elon Musk, Financial Times reported on Tuesday. Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman and board members are evaluating new governance measures as the company transitions to a traditional for-profit structure, the report said, citing people with direct knowledge of the discussions. OpenAI did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. While no firm decisions have been made, the move could help OpenAI block future hostile takeover attempts, including from Musk, who co-founded the company with Altman but later departed. On Friday, OpenAI rejected a $97.4 billion acquisition offer from a consortium led by Musk, saying the startup is not for sale and dismissing any future bids as disingenuous. Musk's offer is his latest effort to prevent OpenAI from becoming a profit-driven company as it seeks more funding to stay competitive in the artificial intelligence race. If implemented, the special voting rights would allow the non-profit board to overrule major investors, including backers like Microsoft and SoftBank, ensuring it retains decision-making power, the report said. (Reporting by Surbhi Misra in Bengaluru; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala)

OpenAI rejects Elon Musk's bid for control of the company

OpenAI sent a letter Friday to Marc Toberoff, the lawyer representing Elon Musk and the investors making the bid, saying that the offer was "not in the best interests of OAI's mission," which is to build artificial intelligence that benefits "all of humanity."OpenAI's board of directors on Friday rejected a $97.4 billion bid by Elon Musk and a consortium of investors to gain control of the artificial intelligence company, deepening a feud between Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. In a statement, Bret Taylor, chair of the OpenAI board, said, "OpenAI is not for sale, and the board has unanimously rejected Mr. Musk's latest attempt to disrupt his competition." Taylor was referring to Musk's AI company, xAI. OpenAI sent a letter Friday to Marc Toberoff, the lawyer representing Musk and the investors making the bid, saying that the offer was "not in the best interests of OAI's mission," which is to build artificial intelligence that benefits "all of humanity." Musk and other investors made their offer Monday for the assets of the non-profit that controls OpenAI. With the bid, Musk was meddling in a plan that Altman has made to change OpenAI's corporate structure. Altman hopes to shift control of the company to OpenAI's investors, including Microsoft. Toberoff said in a statement to The New York Times: "This comes as no surprise, given that Altman and board chair, Taylor, already rejected Musk's $97 billion bid while stating they had not yet received it. But we are surprised to see the board, which has strict fiduciary duties to carefully consider the bid in good faith on behalf of the charity, use the same kind of deflective double-talk Altman used in testifying to the Senate." Toberoff insisted that OpenAI was indeed putting the non-profit's assets up for sale. "They're just selling it to themselves at a fraction of what Musk has offered, enriching board members," he said, "rather than the charity in a classic self-dealing transaction." He added, "Will someone please explain how that benefits 'all of humanity'?" Musk did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Musk and Altman have been at odds for years. Musk helped create OpenAI as a non-profit in 2015, along with Altman and others. In 2018, Musk left the organization after a battle for control of the company. Altman then attached OpenAI to a for-profit company so he could raise the billions of dollars needed to build AI technologies. The non-profit, though, retained control of the company. Last year, Altman and his colleagues began working on a plan to shift control of the company from the non-profit to OpenAI's investors. Musk's $97.4 billion bid could complicate that plan. To separate OpenAI from the non-profit board, Altman and his allies must compensate it. OpenAI might pay the non-profit a one-time fee, for instance, or give it a minority stake in the company. But the non-profit's assets have not been given a value, which was what Musk was trying to establish with his bid. His offer meant that OpenAI's for-profit arm would have to spend more to gain independence from the non-profit. Musk also filed a lawsuit in federal court last year to block OpenAI's plans to restructure. Robert Bonta, California's attorney general and a Democrat, said this week in an interview that the state was scrutinizing OpenAI's plan to shift to a for-profit structure. "There's a way to do it right. There's a way to do it wrong, and we're monitoring to make sure they do it right," he said, adding that his office was also closely watching Musk. We are "monitoring everything he does," Bonta said. As Musk battles OpenAI, he is also raising money for xAI. The startup, which makes a chatbot called Grok, is in talks for a new financing round that could value it at as much as $75 billion, up from about $40 billion just two months ago, two people with knowledge of the discussions said. The talks are in the early stages, they said, and it's unclear how much money will be raised. Bloomberg earlier reported the talks. As recently as December, xAI had raised $6 billion, saying it would use the money to build infrastructure and accelerate research and development. BlackRock, Fidelity, Sequoia Capital and others investors participated in the funding.

OpenAI board unanimously rejects Elon Musk's $97.4 billion proposal

SAN FRANCISCO -- OpenAI says its board of directors has unanimously rejected a $97.4 billion takeover bid by Elon Musk. "OpenAI is not for sale, and the board has unanimously rejected Mr. Musk's latest attempt to disrupt his competition," said a statement Friday from Bret Taylor, chair of OpenAI's board. OpenAI attorney William Savitt in a letter to Musk's attorney Friday said the proposal "is not in the best interests of OAI's mission and is rejected." Musk, an early OpenAI investor, began a legal offensive against the ChatGPT maker nearly a year ago, suing for breach of contract over what he said was the betrayal of its founding aims as a nonprofit he helped found a decade ago. Then on Monday, while that case was still awaiting a key ruling, Musk and his own AI startup, xAI, and a group of investment firms announced a bid to buy the nonprofit that controls OpenAI. Musk in a court filing Wednesday expanded on the proposal to acquire the nonprofit's controlling stake in the for-profit OpenAI subsidiary. Savitt's letter Friday said that filing added "new material conditions to the proposal. As a result of that filing, it is now apparent that your clients' much-publicized 'bid' is in fact not a bid at all." In any event, "even as first presented," the board has unanimously rejected it, Savitt said. Musk has alleged in the lawsuit that the companies are violating the terms of his foundational contributions to the charity. Musk had invested about $45 million in the startup from its founding until 2018, his lawyer has said. He escalated the legal dispute late last year, adding new claims and defendants, including OpenAI's business partner Microsoft, and asking for a court order that would halt OpenAI's plans to more fully convert itself into a for-profit business. Musk also added xAI as a plaintiff, claiming that OpenAI was also unfairly stifling business competition. A judge is still considering Musk's request but expressed skepticism about some of his claims in a court hearing last week.

A Timeline of Elon Musk's (Ongoing) Bid to Buy OpenAI

Elon Musk yesterday said he would withdraw his $97.4 billion acquisition offer if OpenAI halts its for-profit conversion plans. Elon Musk's $97.4 billion offer to acquire OpenAI's nonprofit arm is the latest salvo in a long-running feud between the billionaire and Sam Altman, CEO the ChatGPT-maker. Whether or not Musk's intention is serious, his bid could put a wrench in Altman's plans to convert the high-flying A.I. company, which operates under a capped-profit structure, into a fully for-profit one. Sign Up For Our Daily Newsletter Sign Up Thank you for signing up! By clicking submit, you agree to our <a href="http://observermedia.com/terms">terms of service</a> and acknowledge we may use your information to send you emails, product samples, and promotions on this website and other properties. You can opt out anytime. See all of our newsletters Musk and Altman's disagreements have boiled over into public view for some time now. But the duo were once friends and fellow co-founders, having established OpenAI back in 2015 as a nonprofit A.I. research lab with a mission of developing the technology to benefit humanity. Musk left the organization three years later after a reportedly failed attempt to take it over. Last year, he founded a rival company called xAI. OpenAI, however, is still very much on Musk's mind. The entrepreneur has filed various legal complaints against OpenAI and Altman that accuse the company of pursuing profits over its founding goals. Now, with a hefty takeover bid to purchase OpenAI's nonprofit, Musk seemingly wants back in. Here's a look at what's unfolded between the two tech power players this week, and what implications the saga may have on the future of the world's leading A.I. company. What's happened so far? Monday (Feb. 10): Musk submitted the unsolicited offer to acquire OpenAI. "It's time for OpenAI to return to the open-source, safety-focused force for good it once was," said Musk in a statement provided to the Wall Street Journal. The bid comes from a Musk-led consortium that includes investors like Valor Equity Partners and firms led by Joe Lonsdale, co-founder of Palantir, and Ari Emanuel, CEO of Endeavor. The offer is likely to complicate OpenAI's for-profit conversion plans, which have been in the making for some time. Under the plan, OpenAI's nonprofit arm will likely spin out from the company's capped-profit portion and either receive a payout or retain shares in the restructured for-profit corporation. Musk's bid set a lofty floor value for this potential transition. The takeover was swiftly rejected by Altman, who included a swipe at Musk's $44 billion acquisition of Twitter, now known as X, in his response. "No thank you but we will buy Twitter for $9.74 billion if you want," said the OpenAI CEO on X. Musk struck back by calling Altman a "swindler." Tuesday (Feb. 11): The drama became increasingly personal the next day. When asked in a Bloomberg TV interview whether Musk's bid came from a position of insecurity over xAI's progress in comparison to OpenAI, Altman retorted, "Probably his whole life is from a position of insecurity." The OpenAI chief followed up by labeling Musk as not "a happy person." Musk's targeting of OpenAI is likely an attempt to curb the company's progress, said Altman, who suggested Musk refocus his efforts on xAI. "I think he's probably just trying to slow us down," he said. "I wish he would just compete by building a better product." Reiterating that OpenAI is "not for sale," Altman also stated that the nonprofit will still play a key role after a for-profit conversion is completed. "No matter what, the nonprofit will continue to be extremely important," he said, adding that OpenAI's board is "looking at lots of options about how to best structure for this next phase." Wednesday (Feb. 12): In a court filing, OpenAI accused Musk of hypocrisy. Drawing on Musk's former legal claims against OpenAI that demanded it halt its for-profit conversion, the A.I. company highlighted that his own takeover offer "cannot be reconciled" with his argument that OpenAI's assets should be kept by the nonprofit. "Musk would have [OpenAI] transfer all of its assets to him, for his own economic benefit and that of his competing A.I. business and hand-picked private investors," read the filing, which noted that Musk's previous complaints seemingly don't apply "so long as Musk and his allies are the buyers." Later that day, Musk claimed that his takeover bid will be withdrawn if OpenAI puts a stop to its conversion plans. If OpenAI's board "is prepared to preserve the charity's mission and stipulate to take the "for sale" sign off its assets by halting its conversion," the bid will be dropped, said Musk in a court filing. "Otherwise, the charity must be compensated by what an arms-length buyer will pay for its assets."

OpenAI board unanimously rejects Elon Musk's $97.4 billion proposal

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- OpenAI says its board of directors has unanimously rejected a $97.4 billion takeover bid by Elon Musk. "OpenAI is not for sale, and the board has unanimously rejected Mr. Musk's latest attempt to disrupt his competition," said a statement Friday from Bret Taylor, chair of OpenAI's board. OpenAI attorney William Savitt in a letter to Musk's attorney Friday said the proposal "is not in the best interests of OAI's mission and is rejected." Musk, an early OpenAI investor, began a legal offensive against the ChatGPT maker nearly a year ago, suing for breach of contract over what he said was the betrayal of its founding aims as a nonprofit. OpenAI has increasingly sought to capitalize on the commercial success of generative AI. But the for-profit company is a subsidiary of a nonprofit entity that's bound to a mission -- which Musk helped set -- to safely build better-than-human AI for humanity's benefit. OpenAI is now seeking to more fully convert itself to a for-profit company, but would first have to buy out the nonprofit's assets. Throwing a wrench in those plans, Musk and his own AI startup, xAI, and a group of investment firms announced a bid Monday to buy the nonprofit that controls OpenAI. Musk in a court filing Wednesday further detailed the proposal to acquire the nonprofit's controlling stake. Savitt's letter Friday said that court filing added "new material conditions to the proposal. As a result of that filing, it is now apparent that your clients' much-publicized 'bid' is in fact not a bid at all." In any event, "even as first presented," the board has unanimously rejected it, Savitt said. Musk has alleged in the lawsuit that OpenAI is violating the terms of his foundational contributions to the charity. Musk had invested about $45 million in the startup from its founding until 2018, his lawyer has said. He escalated the legal dispute late last year, adding new claims and defendants, including OpenAI's business partner Microsoft, and asking for a court order that would halt OpenAI's for-profit conversion. Musk also added xAI as a plaintiff, claiming that OpenAI was also unfairly stifling business competition. A judge is still considering Musk's request but expressed skepticism about some of his claims in a court hearing last week. -- -- The Associated Press and OpenAI have a licensing and technology agreement that allows OpenAI access to part of AP's text archives.

OpenAI board unanimously rejects Elon Musk's $97.4 billion proposal

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- OpenAI says its board of directors has unanimously rejected a $97.4 billion takeover bid by Elon Musk. "OpenAI is not for sale, and the board has unanimously rejected Mr. Musk's latest attempt to disrupt his competition," said a statement Friday from Bret Taylor, chair of OpenAI's board. OpenAI attorney William Savitt in a letter to Musk's attorney Friday said the proposal "is not in the best interests of OAI's mission and is rejected." Musk, an early OpenAI investor, began a legal offensive against the ChatGPT maker nearly a year ago, suing for breach of contract over what he said was the betrayal of its founding aims as a nonprofit he helped found a decade ago. Then on Monday, while that case was still awaiting a key ruling, Musk and his own AI startup, xAI, and a group of investment firms announced a bid to buy the nonprofit that controls OpenAI. Musk in a court filing Wednesday expanded on the proposal to acquire the nonprofit's controlling stake in the for-profit OpenAI subsidiary. Savitt's letter Friday said that filing added "new material conditions to the proposal. As a result of that filing, it is now apparent that your clients' much-publicized 'bid' is in fact not a bid at all." In any event, "even as first presented," the board has unanimously rejected it, Savitt said. Musk has alleged in the lawsuit that the companies are violating the terms of his foundational contributions to the charity. Musk had invested about $45 million in the startup from its founding until 2018, his lawyer has said. He escalated the legal dispute late last year, adding new claims and defendants, including OpenAI's business partner Microsoft, and asking for a court order that would halt OpenAI's plans to more fully convert itself into a for-profit business. Musk also added xAI as a plaintiff, claiming that OpenAI was also unfairly stifling business competition. A judge is still considering Musk's request but expressed skepticism about some of his claims in a court hearing last week.

OpenAI Board Rejects Elon Musk's $97.4 Billion Offer

Altman has rebuffed Musk-led offer with a "no thank you" post on X OpenAI on Friday rejected a $97.4 billion (roughly Rs. 8,45,768 crore) bid from a consortium led by billionaire Elon Musk for the ChatGPT maker, saying the startup is not for sale and that any future bid would be disingenuous. The unsolicited approach is Musk's latest attempt to block the startup he co-founded with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman -- but later left -- from becoming a for-profit firm, as it looks to secure more capital and stay ahead in the Artificial Intelligence (AI) race. "OpenAI is not for sale, and the board has unanimously rejected Mr. Musk's latest attempt to disrupt his competition. Any potential reorganisation of OpenAI will strengthen our nonprofit and its mission to ensure AGI benefits all of humanity," it said on X, quoting OpenAI Chairman Bret Taylor on behalf of the board. Musk's lawyer Marc Toberoff, in a statement, responded that OpenAI is putting control of the for-profit enterprise up for sale, and said the move will "enrich its certain board members rather than the charity." OpenAI in late December had outlined plans to revamp its structure, saying it would create a public benefit corporation to make it easier to "raise more capital than we'd imagined," and remove the restrictions imposed on the startup by its current nonprofit parent. Altman on Monday had rebuffed the consortium's offer with a "no thank you" posted on X, prompting Musk to retort: "swindler." On Tuesday, Altman told news website Axios that OpenAI was not for sale. Musk's lawyers, in a court filing on Wednesday, said the consortium, which includes Musk's own AI startup xAI, would withdraw its bid for OpenAI's non-profit arm if it drops plans to become a for-profit entity. "Two days ago, you filed a pleading in court adding new material conditions to the proposal. As a result of that filing, it is now apparent that your clients' much publicised 'bid' is in fact not a bid at all," the OpenAI board said, according to a letter signed by William Savitt, a lawyer representing the company, and sent to Toberoff on Friday. Other investors in the consortium include Valor Equity Partners, Baron Capital and Hollywood power broker Ari Emanuel. Altman and Musk have been at loggerheads for years. After Musk's departure in 2019, OpenAI created a for-profit arm that has drawn billions of dollars in funding, sparking allegations from Musk that the startup breached its original mission by putting profit ahead of the larger public good. Musk sued Altman, OpenAI and its biggest backer, Microsoft, in August last year for alleged breach of contract. In November, Musk asked a federal court for a preliminary injunction to block OpenAI from moving to a for-profit structure. © Thomson Reuters 2025

OpenAI Board Rejects Elon Musk's $97 Billion Acquisition Proposal Days After Sam Altman Calls It A Move To 'Slow Down' A Competitor

Enter your email to get Benzinga's ultimate morning update: The PreMarket Activity Newsletter OpenAI on Friday turned down a substantial offer from Elon Musk and his consortium of investors to acquire the company's assets. What Happened: The board of OpenAI, a leading artificial intelligence company, has rejected a $97.4 billion bid from Musk and his investors, reported the Wall Street Journal. The decision was communicated to Musk's lawyer in a letter, which stated that the offer was not in the best interests of OpenAI's mission. OpenAI's chairman, Bret Taylor, emphasized that the company is not for sale and the board unanimously turned down Musk's offer. On Monday, Musk and his investors submitted an unexpected buyout proposal to OpenAI's board. However, in a court filing Wednesday, his legal team stated that Musk would drop the takeover bid if OpenAI agreed to halt its transition to a for-profit model. See Also: Inflation Spikes In January, Wall Street Rallies On Ukraine Peace Talks, Delayed Tariffs: This Week In The Markets The board rejected Musk's offer to withdraw his bid under certain conditions, arguing that it was not a legitimate proposal. Meanwhile, Musk's attorney, Marc Toberoff, criticized the board's actions, calling it a "classic self-dealing transaction." Why It Matters: Musk's bid to acquire OpenAI has been a topic of intense speculation. This decision is the latest development in Musk's ongoing dispute with OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman. Musk, who co-founded OpenAI in 2015, has accused the company of prioritizing profit over the technology's benefits to humanity. OpenAI is undergoing a structural transition that requires approval from its board of directors and the attorneys general of Delaware and California. The board maintains that Musk's bid is irrelevant to assessing the nonprofit's fair value. The bid was seen by Sam Altman, the OpenAI CEO, as a move to "slow down" a competitor. In an interview with CNBC on Tuesday, he dismissed the notion that Musk was genuinely interested in acquiring OpenAI. Meanwhile, Musk's bid for OpenAI was also viewed as a distraction from Tesla's challenges. Analysts at Oppenheimer said Musk's bid for OpenAI is a discount to the AI company's Oct. 2024 capital raise and unlikely to lead to any discussion. Read Next: David Tepper, Rausing Family Boost Nvidia Holdings Ahead Of Stock Volatility Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors. Photos courtesy: Shutterstock Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs

OpenAI Rejects Elon Musk-Led Group's $97.4B Takeover Bid

OpenAI rejected a reported $97.4 billion takeover offer from an Elon Musk-led investor group. OpenAI Chair Bret Taylor posted on Musk-owned X Friday that the ChatGPT developer is "not for sale," calling the bid "Musk's latest attempt to disrupt his competition." Musk's artificial intelligence startup xAI, an OpenAI competitor, is reportedly exploring a $10 billion capital raise that could push its valuation to $75 billion. OpenAI attorney William Savitt said the offer was "not a bid at all" in a letter to Musk's lawyer Marc Toberoff Friday, according to a CNBC report. Savitt and Toberoff did not immediately respond to requests for comment. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman had addressed the offer earlier this week, posting on X, "no thank you but we will buy twitter for $9.74 billion if you want." Musk replied, "Swindler," and in a post replying to another user added, "Scam Altman." Musk and Altman founded OpenAI together as a nonprofit in 2015. The offer came after Musk sued Altman and OpenAI last year, alleging he and others had breached the company's founding mission by prioritizing profits over seeking benefits to humanity. On Wednesday, Musk said he would pull the bid if the nonprofit that controls OpenAI ended its plans to convert to a for-profit firm.

OpenAI Questions Rationale of Elon Musk's Bid to Control the Company

Sign up for the On Tech newsletter. Get our best tech reporting from the week. Get it sent to your inbox. OpenAI's board of directors on Wednesday questioned the rationale of a $97.4 billion bid from Elon Musk and others to gain control of the high-profile artificial intelligence company. On Monday, a consortium of investors led by Mr. Musk offered to buy the assets of the nonprofit that controls the company, escalating a yearslong feud between Mr. Musk and OpenAI's chief executive, Sam Altman. In a court filing on Wednesday, the company said Mr. Musk's bid contradicted legal claims the billionaire made in a lawsuit he brought against OpenAI last year. OpenAI argued in its filing that Mr. Musk said in his lawsuit the assets must remain with the nonprofit and could not be transferred to another entity for public gain. The company is essentially accusing Mr. Musk of hypocrisy. In his lawsuit, he argued OpenAI must be governed by the nonprofit. Now, OpenAI contends, he is arguing the opposite. The OpenAI board has not yet formally rejected the bid. Marc Toberoff, a Los Angeles lawyer who filed the lawsuit against OpenAI on behalf of Mr. Musk, said in a statement to The New York Times on Wednesday: "The lawsuit is not about who controls OpenAI. It's about Sam Altman and OpenAI's misconduct." If OpenAI's board "is prepared to stipulate to take the 'For Sale' sign off the charity's assets in its so-called 'conversion,' Musk will withdraw his bid," Mr. Toberoff added, referring to OpenAI's efforts to sever itself from the nonprofit's control. "But, of course, OpenAI will never do that." The bid from Mr. Musk's consortium could still complicate Mr. Altman's efforts to separate the company from the nonprofit board and raise the billions of dollars that OpenAI needs to build new technologies. For more than a year, Mr. Altman and his colleagues have been working on a plan to shift control of the company from the nonprofit to OpenAI's investors, including Microsoft and the investment firm Thrive Capital. OpenAI has been negotiating a $40 billion fund-raising deal, led by the Japanese conglomerate SoftBank. The new fund-raising round values OpenAI at $300 billion, according to three people with knowledge of the deal who spoke on the condition of anonymity. The San Francisco company's unusual corporate structure provided an opening for Mr. Musk to meddle in that plan and make revamping OpenAI more expensive. In order to separate from the nonprofit board, Mr. Altman and his colleagues must provide compensation. OpenAI might pay the nonprofit a one-time fee, for instance, or give it a minority stake in the company. The nonprofit's assets, however, have not been given a value. Mr. Musk is trying to set one, and his offer could mean that OpenAI's for-profit arm would have to spend more to gain independence from the old nonprofit. The clock is ticking for OpenAI to change how it operates. Under the terms of OpenAI's last investment round, it must shift control of the company away from the nonprofit in less than two years. Otherwise, its funding will convert into debt, according to documents reviewed by The New York Times. (The Times has sued OpenAI and Microsoft, claiming copyright infringement of news content related to A.I. systems. The two companies have denied the suit's claims.) Mr. Musk's aggressive move is the latest in a very personal fight with Mr. Altman that started 10 years ago as a partnership. They were part of the group that founded OpenAI as a nonprofit in 2015, saying they wanted to freely share their technologies with the world. When Mr. Musk left the organization three years later after a battle for control, Mr. Altman attached OpenAI to a for-profit company so he could raise the enormous amounts of money needed to build A.I. technologies. In late 2023, the nonprofit board suddenly fired Mr. Altman, saying it no longer trusted him to build A.I. for the benefit of humanity -- which was one of the original principles of the nonprofit. He returned to the company in just five days and began stacking the board with his allies, while exploring ways of severing the nonprofit's control. If they severed the nonprofit's control, Mr. Altman and his allies believed, OpenAI would be more attractive to investors. Before the bid that became public on Monday, Mr. Musk also moved to block the changes to OpenAI's management structure with a lawsuit filed in federal court last year.

OpenAI board rejects Musk's $97.4 billion offer

Feb 14 (Reuters) - OpenAI on Friday rejected a $97.4 billion bid from a consortium led by billionaire Elon Musk for the ChatGPT maker, saying the startup is not for sale. The unsolicited approach is Musk's latest attempt to block the startup he co-founded with CEO Sam Altman -- but later left -- from becoming a for-profit firm, as it looks to secure more capital and stay ahead in the AI race. "OpenAI is not for sale, and the board has unanimously rejected Mr. Musk's latest attempt to disrupt his competition. Any potential reorganization of OpenAI will strengthen our nonprofit and its mission to ensure AGI benefits all of humanity," Chairman Bret Taylor said, on behalf of its board. Altman and Musk have been at loggerheads for years. After Musk's departure in 2019, OpenAI created a for-profit arm that has drawn billions of dollars in funding, sparking allegations from Musk that the startup breached its original mission by putting profit ahead of the larger public good. Reporting by Aditya Soni in Bengaluru and Juby Babu in Mexico City; Editing by Arun Koyyur and Alan Barona Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab Suggested Topics:Artificial Intelligence

OpenAI Board Unanimously Rejects Elon Musk's $97.4 Billion Proposal

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- OpenAI says its board of directors has unanimously rejected a $97.4 billion takeover bid by Elon Musk. "OpenAI is not for sale, and the board has unanimously rejected Mr. Musk's latest attempt to disrupt his competition," said a statement Friday from Bret Taylor, chair of OpenAI's board. OpenAI attorney William Savitt in a letter to Musk's attorney Friday said the proposal "is not in the best interests of OAI's mission and is rejected." Musk, an early OpenAI investor, began a legal offensive against the ChatGPT maker nearly a year ago, suing for breach of contract over what he said was the betrayal of its founding aims as a nonprofit he helped found a decade ago. Then on Monday, while that case was still awaiting a key ruling, Musk and his own AI startup, xAI, and a group of investment firms announced a bid to buy the nonprofit that controls OpenAI. Musk in a court filing Wednesday expanded on the proposal to acquire the nonprofit's controlling stake in the for-profit OpenAI subsidiary. Savitt's letter Friday said that filing added "new material conditions to the proposal. As a result of that filing, it is now apparent that your clients' much-publicized 'bid' is in fact not a bid at all." In any event, "even as first presented," the board has unanimously rejected it, Savitt said. Musk has alleged in the lawsuit that the companies are violating the terms of his foundational contributions to the charity. Musk had invested about $45 million in the startup from its founding until 2018, his lawyer has said. He escalated the legal dispute late last year, adding new claims and defendants, including OpenAI's business partner Microsoft, and asking for a court order that would halt OpenAI's plans to more fully convert itself into a for-profit business. Musk also added xAI as a plaintiff, claiming that OpenAI was also unfairly stifling business competition. A judge is still considering Musk's request but expressed skepticism about some of his claims in a court hearing last week. Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

OpenAI board rejects Elon Musk-led buyout offer

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) - OpenAI's board chairman on Friday said it has unanimously rejected an Elon Musk-led offer to buy the hot artificial intelligence company for USD97.4 billion. "OpenAI is not for sale, and the board has unanimously rejected Mr. Musk's latest attempt to disrupt his competition," chairman of the board Bret Taylor said in a statement posted by the company on Musk-owned X, formerly Twitter. "Any potential reorganisation of OpenAI will strengthen our nonprofit and its mission to ensure AGI (artificial general intelligence) benefits all of humanity," the statement continued. Musk filed court documents on Wednesday saying that he would withdraw the offer to buy OpenAI if its board returns the artificial intelligence pioneer to a non-profit "charity" model. OpenAI currently operates a hybrid structure, as a non-profit with a money-making subsidiary. The change to a for-profit model -- one that Altman considers crucial for the company's development -- had exacerbated ongoing tensions with Musk. Musk and Altman were among the 11-person team that founded OpenAI in 2015, with the former providing initial funding of USD45 million. Three years later, Musk departed the company, with OpenAI citing "a potential future conflict for Elon... as Tesla continues to become more focused on AI." Musk established his own artificial intelligence company called xAI early in 2023 after OpenAI ignited global fervor over the technology. The massive costs of designing, training, and deploying AI models have compelled OpenAI to seek a new corporate structure that would give investors equity and provide more stable governance. The transition to a traditional for-profit company requires approval from California and Delaware authorities, who will scrutinise how the non-profit arm of OpenAI is valued when it becomes a shareholder in the new company. Current investors prefer a lower valuation to maximise their share of the new company. Musk's bid, valuing the OpenAI non-profit at USD97.4 billion -- approximately USD30 billion above the level in current negotiations, according to The Information -- appears designed to disrupt the company's fundraising efforts. OpenAI's Chief Global Affairs Officer Chris Lehane has said Musk's offer came from a competitor "who has struggled to keep up with the technology and compete with us in the marketplace".

OpenAI board rejects Musk's $97.4 billion offer

Feb 14 (Reuters) - OpenAI on Friday rejected a $97.4 billion bid from a consortium led by billionaire Elon Musk for the ChatGPT maker, saying the startup is not for sale. The unsolicited approach is Musk's latest attempt to block the startup he co-founded with CEO Sam Altman -- but later left -- from becoming a for-profit firm, as it looks to secure more capital and stay ahead in the AI race. "OpenAI is not for sale, and the board has unanimously rejected Mr. Musk's latest attempt to disrupt his competition. Any potential reorganization of OpenAI will strengthen our nonprofit and its mission to ensure AGI benefits all of humanity," Chairman Bret Taylor said, on behalf of its board. Altman and Musk have been at loggerheads for years. After Musk's departure in 2019, OpenAI created a for-profit arm that has drawn billions of dollars in funding, sparking allegations from Musk that the startup breached its original mission by putting profit ahead of the larger public good. (Reporting by Aditya Soni in Bengaluru and Juby Babu in Mexico City; Editing by Arun Koyyur and Alan Barona)

OpenAI Board Rejects $97.4 Billion Offer From Elon Musk

The unsolicited approach is Musk's latest attempt to block the startup he co-founded with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman -- but later left -- from becoming a for-profit firm, as it looks to secure more capital and stay ahead in the artificial intelligence race. "OpenAI is not for sale, and the board has unanimously rejected Mr. Musk's latest attempt to disrupt his competition. Any potential reorganization of OpenAI will strengthen our nonprofit and its mission to ensure AGI benefits all of humanity," it said on X, quoting OpenAI Chairman Bret Taylor on behalf of the board. Musk's lawyer Marc Toberoff, in a statement, responded that OpenAI is putting control of the for-profit enterprise up for sale, and said the move will "enrich its certain board members rather than the charity."

A 'Musk-led consortium' of investors say they'll withdraw $97.4 billion bid to buy OpenAI -- but only if it stays non-profit

Earlier this week, Elon Musk alongside a group of investors put in an unsolicited bid to purchase the non-profit portion of OpenAI, OpenAI Inc. Now, according to court documents filed on Wednesday, this "Musk-led consortium" says they will withdraw the eye-watering $97.4 billion offer, but only if OpenAI's board decides against turning this venture into a for-profit organisation (Via TechCrunch). This latest court filing describes the bid for OpenAI's governing non-profit publicised on Monday as "serious." This, despite Musk allegedly telling staff at X over email, "Our user growth is stagnant, revenue is unimpressive, and we're barely breaking even." Furthermore, sources told Reuters that OpenAI's board of directors had apparently not received a formal bid from Musk's side as of Tuesday. Still, the original bid has arguably succeeded in at least one of its goals: to draw public attention to OpenAI's reported intention to go for-profit through its latest restructure, and to get us all talking about it -- like this. Whether any amount of public attention will keep OpenAI non-profit still remains to be seen though. The company started as a non-profit, before shifting into a 'capped-profit' structure back in 2019. The non-profit part of the company Musk et al allegedly want to buy is what steers the ship of the wider, capped-profit company. The aforementioned restructure intends to go more traditionally for-profit in the form of a public benefit corporation. OpenAI is presently playing it cool. The original unsolicited bid was dismissed by OpenAI CEO and co-founder Sam Altman, who went as far as to write on X, "No thank you but we will buy Twitter for $9.74 billion if you want". Theoretically, the board could still accept a bid despite this rejection from Altman, though a recent comment suggests that's unlikely; counsel to OpenAI's board, Andrew Nussbaum, provided a statement to Bloomberg News which further clarifies the company's stance: "The nonprofit is not for sale." For those unaware, Elon Musk co-founded the company that went on to create ChatGPT alongside Sam Altman back in 2015. Musk then left in 2018, with the company saying at the time his departure was to avoid a potential conflict of interest as Tesla became more interested in AI. Last year, OpenAI shared redacted emails and DMs suggesting that this split was anything but wholly amicable. Not only that, but these messages also indicate that Musk wanted to push OpenAI towards becoming a for-profit organisation as early as 2017. Sam Altman recently told Bloomberg Television, "I think he is probably just trying to slow us down. He obviously is a competitor. I wish he would just compete by building a better product, but I think there's been a lot of tactics, many, many lawsuits, all sorts of other crazy stuff, now this." The Musk-backed competition in question is xAI and their boorish chatbot Grok. You know what? I think I'm finally getting it.

OpenAI board unanimously rejects Elon Musk's $97.4B offer: 'Not for...

OpenAI on Friday rejected a $97.4 billion bid from a consortium led by billionaire Elon Musk for the ChatGPT maker, saying the startup is not for sale. The unsolicited approach is Musk's latest attempt to block the startup he co-founded with CEO Sam Altman -- but later left -- from becoming a for-profit firm, as it looks to secure more capital and stay ahead in the AI race. "OpenAI is not for sale, and the board has unanimously rejected Mr. Musk's latest attempt to disrupt his competition. Any potential reorganization of OpenAI will strengthen our nonprofit and its mission to ensure AGI benefits all of humanity," Chairman Bret Taylor said, on behalf of its board. Altman and Musk have been at loggerheads for years. After Musk's departure in 2019, OpenAI created a for-profit arm that has drawn billions of dollars in funding, sparking allegations from Musk that the startup breached its original mission by putting profit ahead of the larger public good.

OpenAI rejects Elon Musk's $97.4 billion offer

OpenAI has firmly rejected a massive $97.4 billion offer from a consortium led by billionaire Elon Musk. The bid, which was aimed at acquiring the company, was dismissed in a recent statement, with OpenAI's board asserting that the company is not for sale. This marks another chapter in the ongoing battle between Musk and the company he co-founded but left in 2019. While Musk has expressed concerns that OpenAI is straying from its original mission, the board maintains that any move toward profitability would only strengthen its nonprofit foundation. Despite Musk's attempt to rally investors, including those from his AI company xAI and Hollywood mogul Ari Emanuel, OpenAI stands firm in its commitment to its vision of artificial general intelligence benefiting all of humanity. For now, it remains to be seen whether Musk will alter his strategy or continue his efforts to influence the company's direction.

OpenAI board unanimously rejects Elon Musk's takeover bid | BreakingNews.ie

OpenAI says its board of directors has unanimously rejected a 97.4 billion dollar (£77.3 billion) takeover bid by Elon Musk. "OpenAI is not for sale, and the board has unanimously rejected Mr Musk's latest attempt to disrupt his competition," said a statement from Bret Taylor, chairman of OpenAI's board. OpenAI lawyer William Savitt, in a letter to Mr Musk's lawyer on Friday, said the proposal "is not in the best interests of OAI's mission and is rejected". Mr Musk, an early OpenAI investor, began a legal offensive against the ChatGPT maker nearly a year ago, suing for breach of contract over what he said was the betrayal of its founding aims as a non-profit he helped found a decade ago. Then on Monday, while that case was still awaiting a key ruling, Mr Musk and his own AI start-up, xAI, and a group of investment firms announced a bid to buy the non-profit that controls OpenAI. Mr Musk in a court filing on Wednesday expanded on the proposal to acquire the non-profit's controlling stake in the for-profit OpenAI subsidiary. Mr Savitt's letter on Friday said that filing added "new material conditions to the proposal. As a result of that filing, it is now apparent that your clients' much-publicised 'bid' is in fact not a bid at all". In any event, "even as first presented", the board has unanimously rejected it, Mr Savitt said. Mr Musk has alleged in the lawsuit that the companies are violating the terms of his foundational contributions to the charity. Mr Musk had invested about 45 million dollars (£35.7 million) in the start-up from its founding until 2018, his lawyer has said. He escalated the legal dispute late last year, adding new claims and defendants, including OpenAI's business partner Microsoft, and asking for a court order that would halt OpenAI's plans to more fully convert itself into a for-profit business. Mr Musk also added xAI as a plaintiff, claiming that OpenAI was also unfairly stifling business competition. A judge is still considering Mr Musk's request but expressed scepticism about some of his claims in a court hearing last week.

OpenAI says its board of directors 'unanimously' rejects Elon Musk's bid | TechCrunch

OpenAI's board of directors has "unanimously" rejected billionaire Elon Musk's offer to buy the nonprofit that effectively governs OpenAI, the company said on Friday. In a statement shared via OpenAI's press account on X, Bret Taylor, board chair, called Musk's bid "an attempt to disrupt [...] competition." "OpenAI is not for sale, and the board has unanimously rejected Mr. Musk's latest attempt to disrupt his competition," Taylor said. "Any potential reorganization of OpenAI will strengthen our nonprofit and its mission to ensure [artificial general intelligence] benefits all of humanity." On Monday, Musk, his AI company, xAI, and a group of investors offered to buy OpenAI's nonprofit for $97.4 billion. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and the company's board directors quickly -- but not formally -- dismissed the unsolicited proposal. 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 that the nonprofit is "not for sale." 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. OpenAI was founded as a nonprofit before it transitioned to a "capped-profit" structure in 2019. The nonprofit is the sole controlling shareholder of the capped-profit OpenAI corporation, which retains formal fiduciary responsibility to the nonprofit's charter. OpenAI is now in the process of restructuring -- this time to a traditional for-profit company, specifically a public benefit corporation. But Musk, via the lawsuit, is seeking to enjoin the conversion. In a court filing on Wednesday, lawyers for Elon Musk said the billionaire will withdraw his bid if OpenAI's board "preserve[s] the charity's mission" and halt the company's conversion to a for-profit. In a filing earlier the same day, attorneys for OpenAI called Musk's move to take control of the company "an improper bid to undermine a competitor," and a contradiction of his position in court that a transfer of the startup's assets through restructuring would breach its mission as a charitable trust.

OpenAI Considers Special Voting Rights To Thwart Musk's Acquisition Attempt And Defend Future Unsolicited Bids - Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), SoftBank Group (OTC:SFTBY)

In a move to protect its autonomy, Sam Altman-led AI firm, OpenAI, is contemplating granting special voting rights to its non-profit board. This comes in response to a takeover bid from Elon Musk. What Happened: CEO Altman and the board members are considering new governance policies as the company shifts to a traditional for-profit model, according to a Financial Times report on Tuesday. Musk's bid is part of his continued efforts to keep OpenAI from shifting toward a profit-driven model as the company seeks additional funding to remain competitive in the AI industry. The proposed special voting rights would enable the non-profit board to overrule decisions by major investors, such as Microsoft MSFT and SoftBank SFTBY, ensuring OpenAI retains the decision-making authority. OpenAI did not immediately respond to Benzinga's request for comment. SEE ALSO: Palantir CEO Alex Karp Says Western Software Superiority Will Make America 'Stronger' As Burgeoning AI Demand Pushes Stock Up 368% Why It Matters: This development comes on the heels of OpenAI's rejection of a $97.4 billion acquisition proposal from Musk and his consortium of investors. On Friday, the board of OpenAI communicated to Musk's lawyer in a letter that the offer was not in the best interests of OpenAI's mission. OpenAI's chairman, Bret Taylor, emphasized that the company is not for sale and the board unanimously turned down Musk's offer. Previously, in an interview with CNBC, Altman stated that Musk's bid could be a tactical move to obstruct a competitor and strengthen his own AI company, xAI. Meanwhile, in a research note on Feb. 11, analysts at Oppenheimer said that Elon Musk's recent attempt to acquire ChatGPT's parent company, OpenAI, serves as a diversion from his electric vehicle company, Tesla TSLA. While the decision is yet to be finalized, the proposed special voting rights could serve as a protective measure for OpenAI to strengthen its defense against future unsolicited takeover bids. READ MORE: Baidu Q4 Earnings: AI Cloud Grows, Margin Slides, Expects AI Investments To Bear Fruit In 2025 Image via Shutterstock Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors. MSFTMicrosoft Corp$409.700.31%Overview Rating:Speculative50%Technicals Analysis660100Financials Analysis400100WatchlistOverviewSFTBYSoftBank Group Corp$32.203.04%TSLATesla Inc$357.600.49%Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs

OpenAI rejects $97.4bn Musk bid and says company is not for sale

The unsolicited approach is Musk's latest attempt to block the startup he co-founded with CEO Sam Altman - but later left - from becoming a for-profit firm, as it looks to secure more capital and stay ahead in the AI race. "OpenAI is not for sale, and the board has unanimously rejected Mr Musk's latest attempt to disrupt his competition. Any potential reorganization of OpenAI will strengthen our nonprofit and its mission to ensure AGI benefits all of humanity," OpenAI said on X, quoting its chair Bret Taylor, on behalf of its board. On Tuesday, Altman told news website Axios that OpenAI was not for sale. He had rebuffed the offer on Monday with a "no thank you" on X, prompting Musk to retort: "Swindler." The consortium led by Musk, including his AI startup xAI, would withdraw its bid for OpenAI's non-profit arm if it drops plans to become a for-profit entity, the billionaire's lawyers said in a court filing on Wednesday. "Two days ago, you filed a pleading in court adding new material conditions to the proposal. As a result of that filing, it is now apparent that your clients' much publicized 'bid' is in fact not a bid at all," the OpenAI board said, according to a letter signed by William Savitt, a lawyer representing the company, sent to Musk's lawyer Marc Toberoff on Friday. Other investors in the consortium include Valor Equity Partners, Baron Capital and Hollywood power broker Ari Emanuel. Altman and Musk have been at loggerheads for years. After Musk's departure in 2019, OpenAI created a for-profit arm that has drawn billions of dollars in funding, sparking allegations from Musk that the startup breached its original mission by putting profit ahead of the larger public good. Musk sued Altman, OpenAI, and its biggest backer Microsoft in August last year for the alleged breach of contract. In November, Musk asked a US district judge for a preliminary injunction to block OpenAI from moving to a for-profit structure.

OpenAI Board Denies Receiving Formal Bid from Elon Musk | PYMNTS.com

A dispute has emerged over whether OpenAI's board has received a formal acquisition bid from a consortium led by Elon Musk, adding another layer of uncertainty to the billionaire's high-profile attempt to take over the nonprofit controlling ChatGPT's creator. According to Reuters, despite Musk's legal team asserting that the bid was sent, OpenAI maintains that its board has not formally received it. The situation follows Musk's public announcement of a $97.4 billion offer to acquire OpenAI's nonprofit arm. However, the board remains unaware of any official proposal, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Tuesday. This discrepancy has fueled speculation about the handling of the bid and its reception within the organization. Marc Toberoff, a lawyer representing Musk, stated to Reuters that he had emailed the offer on Monday to OpenAI's outside counsel at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz. The law firm has not yet responded to requests for comment. Toberoff described the bid as a "detailed four-page Letter of Intent" outlining the acquisition terms, signed by Musk and other investors, and addressed to OpenAI's board. Related: Elon Musk Leads $97.4 Billion Bid to Take Control of OpenAI "Whether Sam Altman chose to provide or withhold this from OpenAI's other Board members is outside of our control," Toberoff told Reuters, referring to OpenAI's CEO. The remark hints at possible internal disagreements over the bid's communication within the company. Despite the offer, Altman dismissed the idea of a sale, telling Reuters on Tuesday that OpenAI's nonprofit entity is not available for purchase. "I have nothing to say. I mean, it's ridiculous," Altman stated during an AI summit in Paris. "The company is not for sale. It's another one of his tactics to try to mess with us," he added, referring to Musk's actions. Internally, Altman reassured OpenAI employees that while the board had yet to formally review the bid, it intended to reject it in alignment with the company's mission, according to an internal message seen by Reuters. Musk, who co-founded OpenAI with Altman in 2015, parted ways with the company due to disagreements over its direction and funding strategies. Since then, he has launched a competing AI venture, xAI, in 2023. His latest attempt to regain control of OpenAI comes as the organization navigates a complex transition toward a for-profit model, an effort that involves raising $40 billion to support its AI advancements.

Musk won't chase OpenAI with his billions as long as it stays non-profit

Elon Musk was one of the founding members of OpenAI, but made a sour exit before ChatGPT became a thing. The billionaire claims he wasn't happy with the non-profit's pivot to a profit-chasing business model. A few days ago, Musk submitted a bid to buy OpenAI's non-profit arm for $97.4 billion, but now says he will pull the offer if the AI giant abandons its for-profit ambitions. "If (the) OpenAI board is prepared to preserve the charity's mission and stipulate to take the "for sale" sign off its assets by halting its conversion, Musk will withdraw the bid," says a court filing submitted by the billionaire's lawyer, as per Reuters. Recommended Videos Musk's bid was surprising, though not entirely unexpected. Musk is currently entangled in a legal tussle with OpenAI, challenging the company's shift to a for-profit structure. OpenAI is aiming to spin its AI stack into a business entity, while the non-profit arm will retain a small stake in the business division. Swindler &mdash; Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 10, 2025 When news of the acquisition offer broke, OpenAI chief, Sam Altman, responded that they would instead like to buy X at one-tenth the value of Musk's bid. In subsequent press interactions, Altman made it clear that the company was not up for sale, adding that it was just another tactic to mess with the company. Old feud comes to a simmer Interestingly, Reuters reported a few days ago that OpenAI hasn't formally received Musk's $97.4 billion bid to acquire its non-profit arm. Altman labeled the attempt as "ridiculous" and reportedly told OpenAI employees that the company would reject the offer. But it seems this wasn't Musk's first attempt at a takeover. In a couple of lengthy official statements published recently, OpenAI claimed Musk wanted to eventually merge the AI upstart with Tesla and foresaw a for-profit model, too. Altman also told Axios two days ago that Musk has been vying to take control of OpenAI for a long time. YUCK &mdash; Sam Altman (@sama) February 11, 2025 "OpenAI is not for sale. OpenAI's mission is not for sale - to say nothing of the fact that, like, a competitor who is not able to beat us in the market and you know, instead is just trying to say, like, 'I'm gonna buy this" with total disregard for the mission is a likely path there," Altman told the outlet. Musk owns his own AI company called xAI and already has a ChatGPT rival called Grok out in the market. Speaking virtually at the World Governments Summit in Dubai, Musk revealed that the latest version of xAI's chatbot, Grok-3, is in the late stages of development with improved reasoning capabilities. OpenAI has already teased its next-gen GPT-5 plans and says it will simplify the AI model strategy in the near future. The company is also working on in-house AI chips and the ambitious "Stargate" project worth $500 billion to boost AI development and help maintain US supremacy in the AI race.

Elon Musk says he'll withdraw $97.4B OpenAI bid if Sam Altman...

Elon Musk said he will drop his unsolicited $97.4 billion bid to take over OpenAI if the Sam Altman-led company agrees to suspend plans to restructure from nonprofit to for-profit entity, according to court records. Musk's attorneys outlined his position in a Wednesday filing as part of the xAI owner's sweeping federal lawsuit against OpenAI, Altman and others. Musk has also asked a federal judge to halt OpenAI's plans to restructure through a preliminary injunction. "If OpenAI, Inc.'s Board is prepared to preserve the charity's mission and stipulate to take the 'for sale' sign off its assets by halting its conversion, Musk will withdraw the bid," the filing said. The shocking bid from Musk and a group of blue-chip investors marked an escalation in his long-running legal war with OpenAI, which he co-founded in 2015 but exited after disagreements with Altman. It also marks a major headache for OpenAI's restructuring plans, which were already seen as complicated due to a bizarre corporate structure in which a nonprofit board oversees the company. OpenAI has said the nonprofit will continue to exist but won't be in charge. OpenAI argued in a separate filing that Musk's shock takeover bid "further exposes" his request for a preliminary injunction "as an improper bid to undermine a competitor." Musk's xAI directly competes with OpenAI. OpenAI's lawyers also claim that Musk's offer to buy the company contradicts the original premise of his lawsuit. "In this court, Musk argues that OpenAI Inc.'s assets cannot be 'transferred away' for 'private gain'....but out of court, those constraints evidently do not apply, so long as Musk and his allies are the buyers," the filing said. "Musk would have OpenAI Inc. transfer all of its assets to him, for his economic benefit and that of his competing AI business and hand-picked private investors." Filed last year, Musk's lawsuit names OpenAI, Altman, key investor Microsoft, billionaire Reid Hoffman and others as co-defendants. The suit alleges that OpenAI abandoned its original goal of developing AI to benefit humanity while transforming from a "tax-exempt charity to a $157 billion for-profit, market-paralyzing gorgon." Musk also claims that he will suffer irreparable harm unless a judge grants an injunction stopping OpenAI's restructuring plans. US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, who is overseeing the case, called Musk's claims about irreparable harm a "stretch" but said she would allow proceedings to go to trial so long as Musk appears to testify. The judge has yet to rule on the injunction. Musk's shocking $9.4 billion bid includes financing from prominent venture firms such as Joe Lonsdale's 8VC, Valor Equity Partners, Baron Capital, Atreides Management and Vy Capital, and Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel. Musk's attorney said his startup, xAI, could merge with OpenAI if a deal happens. Altman has also flatly rejected the offer while stating that OpenAI was "not for sale." He also personally blasted Musk, telling Bloomberg that "his whole life is from a position from insecurity" and that he doesn't think Musk is a "happy person." "He obviously is a competitor," Altman added. "I wish he would just compete by building a better product, but I think there's been a lot of tactics, many, many lawsuits, all sorts of other crazy stuff, now this."

Musk Pledges to Withdraw OpenAI Bid if Company Remains Nonprofit | PYMNTS.com

Days after offering $97.4 billion for OpenAI's nonprofit, Elon Musk is proposing a new deal. "If [the] OpenAI board is prepared to preserve the charity's mission and stipulate to take the 'for sale' sign off its assets by halting its conversion, Musk will withdraw the bid," lawyers for the world's richest man said in a court filing, per a Wall Street Journal (WSJ) report. Musk and a group of investors first floated the offer for the nonprofit that controls the artificial intelligence (AI) startup on Monday (Feb. 10), the latest in a series of moves to prevent the company from giving up its nonprofit status. "It's time for OpenAI to return to the open-source, safety-focused force for good it once was," Musk said in a statement provided by his attorney. "We will make sure that happens." OpenAI CEO Sam Altman quickly pushed back. "No thank you but we will buy twitter for $9.74 billion if you want," Altman said in a post on X, referring to the Musk-owned social media platform by its former name. The following day, Altman once again rejected the offer in an interview with Bloomberg Television, suggesting that Musk's bid was born out of frustration related to xAI, his own artificial intelligence company. "I think he is probably just trying to slow us down. He obviously is a competitor," said Altman. "I wish he would just compete by building a better product, but I think there's been a lot of tactics, many, many lawsuits, all sorts of other crazy stuff, now this." As the WSJ notes, Musk's bid has complicated Altman's plans for the future of OpenAI, not just its switch to a for-profit operation, but also the $500 billion AI infrastructure project known as "Stargate," a joint venture with Oracle and SoftBank. Altman and Musk are engaged in a legal battle over the direction of OpenAI, which they helped found 10 years ago. Last week, a judge ruled that the suit -- initiated by Musk -- would move to trial, with the possibility of Musk taking the stand. "Something is going to trial in this case," said U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, adding that Musk would "sit on the stand, present it to a jury, and a jury will decide who is right." OpenAI has argued that becoming a for-profit company will let it garner the types of investments it needs to develop the best AI models. The company has also said it would try to dismiss Musk's claims, saying he "should be competing in the marketplace rather than the courtroom."

Elon Musk Will Pull OpenAI Bid if It Remains Non-Profit, Lawyers Say

Altman is now working on a plan to restructure OpenAI's core business A consortium led by Elon Musk will withdraw its $97.4 billion (roughly Rs. 8,47,272 crore) bid for OpenAI's non-profit arm if the ChatGPT maker drops plans to become a for-profit entity, the billionaire's lawyers said in a court filing on Wednesday. Musk has been trying to block the startup he co-founded and later left from becoming a for-profit firm, a move crucial for OpenAI to secure more capital and stay ahead in the AI race. "If (the) OpenAI board is prepared to preserve the charity's mission and stipulate to take the 'for sale' sign off its assets by halting its conversion, Musk will withdraw the bid," the filing said. If not, "the charity must be compensated by what an arms-length buyer will pay for its assets." Musk's "serious offer" was to further the charity's mission, it added. Musk also owns a competing AI startup, xAI, launched in 2023. OpenAI and Musk, CEO of Tesla and social media platform X, did not respond to requests for comment. OpenAI's board has not yet received a formal bid from Musk's group, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Tuesday, adding to the confusion over the unsolicited attempt. Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, earlier this week said the non-profit that controls the company was not for sale, calling the bid "ridiculous". Musk co-founded OpenAI with Altman in 2015 as a non-profit, but left in 2018 before the company took off due to differences over its direction and funding sources. Altman then became CEO of OpenAI and launched a for-profit unit within the startup to secure funding from investors such as Microsoft. Altman is now working on a plan to restructure the core business into a for-profit firm that will no longer be controlled by its non-profit board. The non-profit will, however, continue to exist and own a stake in the for-profit company. Musk has sued to prevent this transition. Several analysts have said regardless of the outcome, the bid will complicate OpenAI's efforts to turn into a for-profit company as it could set a high floor value for the non-profit that controls the startup. Questions have been rising on whether OpenAI would allocate its assets to the non-profit arm fairly since Reuters first reported in September its plans for the change in structure. SoftBank Group is in talks to lead a funding round of up to $40 billion (roughly Rs. 3,47,940 crore) in OpenAI at a valuation of $300 billion, including the new funds, Reuters reported in January, meaning the non-profit could own a stake with significant value in the company. © Thomson Reuters 2025

Elon Musk says he'll stop trying to buy OpenAI if it stays a nonprofit

Elon Musk said he'll withdraw his $97.4 billion bid to buy OpenAI if the ChatGPT maker stops trying to become a for-profit company. The latest installment in the Musk versus OpenAI saga comes from a court filing submitted on Wednesday, caught by CNBC. "If OpenAI, Inc.'s Board is prepared to preserve the charity's mission and stipulate to take the 'for sale' sign off its assets by halting its conversion, Musk will withdraw the bid," read the filing submitted in the U.S. District Court of the Northern District of California. "Otherwise, the charity must be compensated by what an arms-length buyer will pay for its assets." On Monday, Musk and a group of investors made an unsolicited bid to buy OpenAI, which currently exists as a capped-profit subsidiary governed by a nonprofit structure but is trying to convert to a conventional for-profit company. Musk was involved with the nonprofit, which launched in 2015, and says he donated $50 million in its early days. Then, OpenAI converted to its current capped profit structure in 2019 and has been trying to convert to a fully for-profit company since September 2024. Upon this news, Musk sued OpenAI, alleging breach of contract for violating its mission promise to be a nonprofit open-source research firm for altruistically developing AGI (artificial general intelligence). Fast-forward to this week: In an X post on Monday, Altman rejected Musk's bid to buy OpenAI, writing, "No thank you, but we will buy Twitter for $9.74 billion if you want." To complicate matters further, Musk has his own competing AI company, xAI, which makes the X chatbot Grok. "I think [the lawsuit is] to slow down a competitor and catch up with his thing, but I don't really know," Altman told a CNBC reporter at the AI Action Summit in Paris on Tuesday. Altman also said he is "not particularly" taking the bid seriously. Yet Musk and his team insist the offer is serious if OpenAI is allowed to convert to for-profit and "should... the charity's assets proceed to sale."

OpenAI board rejects Elon Musk-led buyout offer

This combination of pictures created on Feb. 11 shows OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, left, in Berlin on Feb. 7 and Elon Musk at U.S. President Donald Trump's inanuguration ceremony in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 20. AFP-Yonhap OpenAI's board chairman on Friday said it has unanimously rejected an Elon Musk-led offer to buy the hot artificial intelligence company for $97.4 billion. "OpenAI is not for sale, and the board has unanimously rejected Mr. Musk's latest attempt to disrupt his competition," chairman of the board Bret Taylor said in a statement posted by the company on Musk-owned X, formerly Twitter. "Any potential reorganization of OpenAI will strengthen our nonprofit and its mission to ensure AGI (artificial general intelligence) benefits all of humanity," the statement continued. Musk filed court documents on Wednesday saying that he would withdraw the offer to buy OpenAI if its board returns the artificial intelligence pioneer to a non-profit "charity" model. OpenAI currently operates a hybrid structure, as a non-profit with a money-making subsidiary. The change to a for-profit model -- one that Altman considers crucial for the company's development -- had exacerbated ongoing tensions with Musk. Musk and Altman were among the 11-person team that founded OpenAI in 2015, with the former providing initial funding of $45 million. Three years later, Musk departed the company, with OpenAI citing "a potential future conflict for Elon... as Tesla continues to become more focused on AI." Musk established his own artificial intelligence company called xAI early in 2023 after OpenAI ignited global fervor over the technology. The massive costs of designing, training, and deploying AI models have compelled OpenAI to seek a new corporate structure that would give investors equity and provide more stable governance. The transition to a traditional for-profit company requires approval from California and Delaware authorities, who will scrutinize how the non-profit arm of OpenAI is valued when it becomes a shareholder in the new company. Current investors prefer a lower valuation to maximize their share of the new company. Musk's bid, valuing the OpenAI non-profit at $97.4 billion -- approximately $30 billion above the level in current negotiations, according to The Information -- appears designed to disrupt the company's fundraising efforts. OpenAI's Chief Global Affairs Officer Chris Lehane has said Musk's offer came from a competitor "who has struggled to keep up with the technology and compete with us in the marketplace." (AFP)

Musk says he'll withdraw US$97.4 billion bid for OpenAI if ChatGPT maker remains nonprofit

Elon Musk says he will abandon his US$97.4 billion offer to buy the nonprofit behind OpenAI if the ChatGPT maker drops its plan to convert into a for-profit company. "If OpenAI, Inc.'s Board is prepared to preserve the charity's mission and stipulate to take the 'for sale' sign off its assets by halting its conversion, Musk will withdraw the bid," lawyers for the billionaire said in a filing to a California court on Wednesday. "Otherwise, the charity must be compensated by what an arms-length buyer will pay for its assets." Musk and a group of investors made their offer earlier this week, in the latest twist to a dispute with the artificial intelligence company that he helped found a decade ago. OpenAI is controlled by a nonprofit board bound to its original mission of safely building better-than-human AI for public benefit. Now a fast-growing business, it unveiled plans last year to formally change its corporate structure. Musk and his own AI startup, xAI, and a consortium of investment firms want to acquire OpenAI so they can revert it back to its original charitable mission as a nonprofit research lab. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman quickly rejected the unsolicited bid in a post on social media and told questioners at a Paris summit on AI that the company is not for sale. Musk and Altman helped start OpenAI in 2015 and later competed over who should lead it. They've been in a long-running feud over the startup's direction since Musk resigned from its board in 2018.

Musk will drop OpenAI offer if it remains a nonprofit: Lawyers

Tech billionaire Elon Musk will withdraw its bid for OpenAI's non-profit arm if the artificial intelligence firm halts its plans to become a for-profit entity, according to a new court filing. "If OpenAI, Inc.'s Board is prepared to preserve the charity's mission and stipulate to take the 'for sale' sign off its assets by halting its conversion, Musk will withdraw the bid," Musk's lawyers wrote in a filing on Wednesday. "Otherwise, the charity must be compensated by what an arms-length buyer will pay for its assets," the filing continued. A consortium of investors led by Musk submitted a $97.4 billion bid to buy the nonprofit that controls OpenAI earlier this week. The price tag is significantly lower than the company's last valuation of $157 billion and comes amid an ongoing legal battle between Musk and CEO Sam Altman. Altman quickly poured cold water over the proposal Tuesday, stating "OpenAI is not for sale." When asked on Bloomberg's "The Pulse" if he takes Musk's bid seriously, Altman said, "I think he's probably just trying to slow us down. He obviously is a competitor." He also claimed Musk is "not a happy person" in response to a question about whether the world's wealthiest individual is negotiating from a "place of insecurity." "Probably his whole life is from a position of insecurity. I feel for the guy," Altman said. "I don't think he's like a happy person. I do feel for him." Musk took a few swipes at the fellow tech billionaire amid the reports this week, calling him a "swindler" and "Scam Altman." The unsolicited offer marks the latest incident in a years-long feud between Altman and Musk, who helped found OpenAI in 2015. Musk, who left the artificial intelligence firm in 2018, has an ongoing suit against the company, Altman and Greg Brockman -- another OpenAI co-founder alleging the ChatGPT leaders strayed from the company's roots to pursue profits over benefitting the public good. The Tesla CEO has taken great issue with Altman and OpenAI's plans to turn it into a for-profit company and on Monday said that "it's time for OpenAI to return to the open-source, safety-focused force for good it once was." Altman signaled that the non-profit arm of OpenAI "will continue to be extremely important" and "will drive the mission." "It will continue to exist. The board is looking at lots of options about how to best structure for this next phase, but the nonprofit is not changing in anything or going anywhere," he said. Reuters reported late Tuesday OpenAI's board had not yet received a formal bid from the investor group, despite Musk's lawyer stating it was sent Monday. The Hill reached out to OpenAI and Musk's legal team for comment. Regardless of Musk's intentions, the bid is likely to complicate OpenAI's pursuit of a for-profit model, some in the industry told The Hill this week.

Musk says he'll withdraw $97.4 billion bid for OpenAI if ChatGPT maker remains nonprofit

Elon Musk says he will abandon his $97.4 billion offer to buy the nonprofit behind OpenAI if the ChatGPT maker drops its plan to convert into a for-profit company. "If OpenAI, Inc.'s Board is prepared to preserve the charity's mission and stipulate to take the 'for sale' sign off its assets by halting its conversion, Musk will withdraw the bid," lawyers for the billionaire said in a filing to a California court on Wednesday. "Otherwise, the charity must be compensated by what an arms-length buyer will pay for its assets." Musk and a group of investors made their offer earlier this week, in the latest twist to a dispute with the artificial intelligence company that he helped found a decade ago. OpenAI is controlled by a nonprofit board bound to its original mission of safely building better-than-human AI for public benefit. Now a fast-growing business, it unveiled plans last year to formally change its corporate structure. Musk and his own AI startup, xAI, and a consortium of investment firms want to acquire OpenAI so they can revert it back to its original charitable mission as a nonprofit research lab. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman quickly rejected the unsolicited bid in a post on social media and told questioners at a Paris summit on AI that the company is not for sale. Musk and Altman helped start OpenAI in 2015 and later competed over who should lead it. They've been in a long-running feud over the startup's direction since Musk resigned from its board in 2018.

Musk says he'll withdraw $97.4 billion bid for OpenAI if ChatGPT maker remains nonprofit

Elon Musk says he will abandon his $97.4 billion offer to buy the nonprofit behind OpenAI if the ChatGPT maker drops its plan to convert into a for-profit company. "If OpenAI, Inc.'s Board is prepared to preserve the charity's mission and stipulate to take the 'for sale' sign off its assets by halting its conversion, Musk will withdraw the bid," lawyers for the billionaire said in a filing to a California court on Wednesday. "Otherwise, the charity must be compensated by what an arms-length buyer will pay for its assets." Musk and a group of investors made their offer earlier this week, in the latest twist to a dispute with the artificial intelligence company that he helped found a decade ago. OpenAI is controlled by a nonprofit board bound to its original mission of safely building better-than-human AI for public benefit. Now a fast-growing business, it unveiled plans last year to formally change its corporate structure. Musk and his own AI startup, xAI, and a consortium of investment firms want to acquire OpenAI so they can revert it back to its original charitable mission as a nonprofit research lab. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman quickly rejected the unsolicited bid in a post on social media and told questioners at a Paris summit on AI that the company is not for sale. Musk and Altman helped start OpenAI in 2015 and later competed over who should lead it. They've been in a long-running feud over the startup's direction since Musk resigned from its board in 2018.

OpenAI rejects Musk's takeover offer, says it was 'not a bid at all'

OpenAI has officially rejected Elon Musk's proposal to buy the artificial intelligence startup's nonprofit parent for $97.4 billion. In a short letter to Musk's lawyer on Friday, OpenAI's attorney, William Savitt, said the OpenAI board had reviewed the proposal and determined that the billionaire's "much-publicized 'bid' is in fact not a bid at all." The "proposal, even as first presented, is not in the best interest of OAI's mission and is rejected," Savitt wrote to Marc Toberoff. "The decision of the OAI board on this matter is unanimous." OpenAI Chairman Bret Taylor said in a statement that the company "is not for sale." "Any potential reorganization of OpenAI will strengthen our nonprofit and its mission to ensure AGI benefits all of humanity," he wrote, referring to artificial general intelligence. Earlier this week, Toberoff disclosed that Musk was leading a group of investors in offering to buy control of OpenAI for $97.4 billion. The offer was for the nonprofit that oversees the developer of ChatGPT. Toberoff said he submitted the offer on Monday. "It's time for OpenAI to return to the open-source, safety-focused force for good it once was," Toberoff wrote at the time. In a response on X, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman wrote, "no thank you but we will buy twitter for $9.74 billion if you want." Musk is the owner of X, formerly Twitter. Musk then replied to Atlman on X, with "swindler," and in a reply to a different user, called him "Scam Altman."

Elon Musk says he'll drop his $97bn bid for OpenAI if it remains a non-profit

Billionaire's lawyers say offer will be withdrawn if firm he helped found a decade ago 'preserves the charity's mission' Elon Musk says he will abandon his $97.4bn offer to buy the non-profit behind OpenAI if the ChatGPT maker drops its plan to convert into a for-profit company. "If OpenAI, Inc.'s Board is prepared to preserve the charity's mission and stipulate to take the 'for sale' sign off its assets by halting its conversion, Musk will withdraw the bid," lawyers for the billionaire said in a filing to a California court on Wednesday. "Otherwise, the charity must be compensated by what an arms-length buyer will pay for its assets." Musk and a group of investors made their offer earlier this week, in the latest twist to a dispute with the artificial intelligence company that he helped found a decade ago. OpenAI is controlled by a non-profit board bound to its original mission of safely building better-than-human AI for public benefit. Now a fast-growing business, it revealed plans last year to formally change its corporate structure. Musk and his own AI startup, xAI, and a consortium of investment firms want to acquire the non-profit's controlling stake in the for-profit OpenAI subsidiary. OpenAI's CEO, Sam Altman, quickly rejected the unsolicited bid in a post on social media and told questioners at a Paris summit on AI that the company is not for sale. The chair of OpenAI's board, Bret Taylor, echoed those remarks at an event on Wednesday. Musk and Altman helped start OpenAI in 2015 and later competed over who should lead it before Musk resigned from the board in 2018. They've been in a long-running and bitter feud over the startup, with Musk suing, dropping his suit, and then suing again in 2024. Musk again criticized Altman's management on Thursday during a videocall to the World Governments Summit in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, describing it as akin to a nonprofit aimed at saving the Amazon rainforest becoming a "lumber company that chops down the trees". Altman has repeatedly countered that Musk's legal challenges to OpenAI are motivated by his role as the founder of a competing startup. Musk has asked a California federal judge to block OpenAI's for-profit conversion on allegations ranging from breach of contract to antitrust violations. The judge has expressed skepticism about some of Musk's arguments but hasn't yet issued a ruling.

Elon Musk will withdraw bid for OpenAI's nonprofit if its board agrees to terms | TechCrunch

In a court filing on Wednesday, a lawyer for Elon Musk said the billionaire will withdraw his $97.4 billion bid for OpenAI's nonprofit if the ChatGPT maker's board of directors "preserve the charity's mission" and halt its conversion to a for-profit corporation. The filing, submitted to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, claims that Musk's offer to buy OpenAI's nonprofit is "serious," and that the nonprofit "must be compensated by what an arms-length buyer will pay for its assets." "Should [...] the charity's assets proceed to sale, a Musk-led consortium has submitted a serious offer [...] that would go to the charity in furtherance of its mission," the filing reads. "[However, if] OpenAI, Inc.'s Board is prepared to preserve the charity's mission and stipulate to take the 'for sale' sign off its assets by halting its conversion, Musk will withdraw the bid." The filing is the latest development in a saga that began on Monday, when Musk, his AI company, xAI, and a group of investors offered to buy the nonprofit that effectively governs OpenAI for $97.4 billion. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and the company's board quickly dismissed the unsolicited proposal. 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 that the nonprofit is "not for sale." 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. OpenAI was founded as a nonprofit before it transitioned to a "capped-profit" structure in 2019. The nonprofit is the sole controlling shareholder of the capped-profit OpenAI corporation, which retains formal fiduciary responsibility to the nonprofit's charter. OpenAI is now in the process of restructuring -- this time to a traditional for-profit company, specifically a public benefit corporation. But Musk, via the lawsuit, is seeking to enjoin the conversion. In a filing earlier on Wednesday, attorneys for OpenAI called Musk's move to take control of the company "an improper bid to undermine a competitor," and a contradiction of his position in court that a transfer of the startup's assets through restructuring would breach its mission as a charitable trust.

OpenAI Says Elon Musk's Takeover Bid Contradicts His Lawsuit Against It

OpenAI is trying to secure capital for developing the best AI models Billionaire Elon Musk's bid to buy OpenAI, which wants to be a for-profit entity, clashes with his lawsuit arguing that assets of the ChatGPT maker should not be for private gain, OpenAI wrote in a letter it submitted to a federal court on Wednesday. On Monday, a consortium of investors led by Elon Musk offered $97.4 billion (roughly Rs. 8,45,924 crore) to buy the assets of OpenAI's nonprofit, in another salvo from the world's richest man against the Artificial Intelligence (AI) startup. Musk sued OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and others in August and has asked a US district judge to block OpenAI's attempt to transition to a for-profit entity. OpenAI in its letter said Musk had contradicted himself when making "an improper bid to undermine a competitor." Musk's court filings assert that OpenAI's assets must remain within a charitable trust and should not be transferred for private gain. That contrasts with his proposed acquisition which seeks to transfer all OpenAI assets to him and his private investors, OpenAI said. Representatives for Musk did not respond to an emailed request for comment. Musk co-founded OpenAI with Altman in 2015 as a nonprofit but left before ChatGPT went viral at the end of 2022. He founded the competing AI startup xAI in 2023. OpenAI has said it wants to become a for-profit organisation to secure the capital needed for developing the best AI models. © Thomson Reuters 2025

Musk says he'll withdraw $97.4 billion bid for OpenAI if ChatGPT maker remains nonprofit

Elon Musk says he will abandon his $97.4 billion offer to buy the nonprofit behind OpenAI if the ChatGPT maker drops its plan to convert into a for-profit company Elon Musk says he will abandon his $97.4 billion offer to buy the nonprofit behind OpenAI if the ChatGPT maker drops its plan to convert into a for-profit company. "If OpenAI, Inc.'s Board is prepared to preserve the charity's mission and stipulate to take the 'for sale' sign off its assets by halting its conversion, Musk will withdraw the bid," lawyers for the billionaire said in a filing to a California court on Wednesday. "Otherwise, the charity must be compensated by what an arms-length buyer will pay for its assets." Musk and a group of investors made their offer earlier this week, in the latest twist to a dispute with the artificial intelligence company that he helped found a decade ago. OpenAI is controlled by a nonprofit board bound to its original mission of safely building better-than-human AI for public benefit. Now a fast-growing business, it unveiled plans last year to formally change its corporate structure. Musk and his own AI startup, xAI, and a consortium of investment firms want to acquire OpenAI so they can revert it back to its original charitable mission as a nonprofit research lab. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman quickly rejected the unsolicited bid in a post on social media and told questioners at a Paris summit on AI that the company is not for sale. Musk and Altman helped start OpenAI in 2015 and later competed over who should lead it. They've been in a long-running feud over the startup's direction since Musk resigned from its board in 2018.

Elon Musk says he will drop efforts to buy OpenAI if it stays nonprofit

Feb. 13 (UPI) -- Elon Musk said he would drop a bid to purchase OpenAI if the artificial intelligence leader remained a nonprofit. The assertion in court filings on Wednesday was the latest back-in-forth between Musk, the world's richest man, and OpenAI's founder Sam Altman. "If OpenAI Inc.'s board is prepared to preserve the charity's mission and stipulate to take 'for sale' sign off its assets by halting conversion, Musk will withdraw the bid," Musk said in Wednesday's court document. "Otherwise, the charity must be compensated by what arm's-length buyer will pay for its assets." On Monday, Musk and his investors' group offered $97.4 billion for OpenAI, the world's leading artificial intelligence company. So far, Altman has rejected Musk's offer, charging that Musk is more interested in an effort to "slow down a competitor" rather than buying OpenAI. The company started as a nonprofit in 2015 and converted to a "capped profit" in 2019. Musk, in the meantime, has voiced his opposition to OpenAI's move away from its original nonprofit status. While Musk provided some of the initial funding for OpenAI, Altman said in December the organization started to move toward a capped-profit model because the founder of Tesla and SpaceX ended his financial contributions. He told CNBC the status would make OpenAI more attractive to investors.

OpenAI Board Rejects Musk's $97.4 Billion Bid to Control Company

OpenAI's board of directors has formally rejected an offer from a group of investors led by Elon Musk to buy the nonprofit that controls the artificial intelligence company for $97.4 billion. "OpenAI is not for sale, and the board has unanimously rejected Mr. Musk's latest attempt to disrupt his competition," Bret Taylor, OpenAI's chairman, said in a statement Friday on behalf of the board.

Eon Musk's full offer letter to buy OpenAI reveals five key details | TechCrunch

Altman's lawyers argued in a Wednesday filing that Musk can't have it both ways: attempt to buy OpenAI's assets and also try to stop it from changing its non-profit status. Musk's team responded that it would withdraw the bid if OpenAI ceased its attempts to convert itself from a non-profit. Meanwhile, as a part of these filings, the full letter of intent from Musk's team to buy OpenAI was made public. Here's 5 key details we learned from that letter and other legal filings to shed light on this ongoing, and rather messy, dispute. The unsolicited offer from Musk's group comes with a specific expiration date: May 10, 2025. There are exceptions to the deadline if the deal is finalized beforehand, both sides agree to end discussions, or OpenAI formally rejects the offer in writing. Despite Altman's public dismissals, including a joking counteroffer to buy X for a tenth of the price, OpenAI's board hasn't formally rejected the offer yet as boards are typically required to legally evaluate such offers, even from competitors. Musk's consortium, which includes VCs like Joe Lonsdale's 8VC and SpaceX investor Vy Capital, is offering exactly $97.375 billion to buy out OpenAI, and says in the letter 100% of the purchase price "would be paid in cash." This is notable since Musk hasn't shied away from using debt in the past, borrowing $13 billion from banks to buy Twitter (now X) in 2022. His net worth has increased substantially since then, floating around $400 billion, according to some estimates, since the election of his new ally Donald Trump. However, the letter names seven investors, including Musk's AI company X.AI as well as unnamed "others," meaning Musk isn't using his personal fortune to finance this. Prior to forking over all that cash, the buyers want to examine OpenAI's financial and business records, along with access to OpenAI staff for interviews. That means everything from "assets, facilities, equipment, books, and records," according to the letter. While this is a normal part of due diligence, especially for an offer as big as $97.4 billion, this could also give Musk's x.AI - an OpenAI competitor - access to sensitive internal information. And once they've seen it all, their diligence could also provide them with a reason to withdraw their offer. The $97.4 billion bid to acquire OpenAI contradicts Musk's legal claims that the startup's assets can't be "transferred away" for "private again," OpenAI lawyers argued in a court filing in the lawsuit on Wednesday. OpenAI suggested the offer isn't serious, but "an improper bid to undermine a competitor." However, Musk's consortium says their offer is indeed "serious" and that its cash would go to OpenAI's non-profit to further its mission. Musk's legal team says he will drop his bid to acquire OpenAI if the board commits to keeping it as a non-profit, according to a court filing on Wednesday. The filing argues that Musk's buyout offer is a genuine one, stating that the non-profit should receive fair market value for its assets based on what an independent buyer would pay. This seems to validate what some pundits have alleged: that the offer was intended to drive up the price Altman would have to pay to take the company private. In a statement, the lawyer representing OpenAI's board said Musk's bid "doesn't set a value for [OpenAI's] non-profit" and that the non-profit is "not for sale."

Musk will withdraw OpenAI bid if ChatGPT maker stays nonprofit, lawyers say

OpenAI was initially founded as a non-profit in 2015, and later converted to a "capped profit" model in 2019. Elon Musk will withdraw his $97.4 billion bid for OpenAI's non-profit arm if the ChatGPT maker stops its conversion into a for-profit entity, according to a court filing. "If OpenAI, Inc.'s Board is prepared to preserve the charity's mission and stipulate to take the 'for sale' sign off its assets by halting its conversion, Musk will withdraw the bid," read the filing, which was submitted Wednesday to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. "Otherwise, the charity must be compensated by what an arms-length buyer will pay for its assets," it added. On Monday, Musk, along with his artificial intelligence company xAI and a consortium of investors, launched a bid to acquire OpenAI's non-profit arm for $97.4 billion, accusing the firm and its CEO Sam Altman of abandoning its original mission to develop AI for good and of pursuing profits instead. Altman has rebuffed the offer, telling CNBC that the move is just an effort by Musk to "slow down a competitor." OpenAI was initially founded as a non-profit in 2015 and later converted to a "capped profit" model in 2019. Musk helped launch the AI research firm, to which he says he donated $50 million. Since his departure from the company's board in 2018, the Tesla and SpaceX founder has expressed vocal frustration with OpenAI's move toward becoming a for-profit company.

Elon Musk 'will abandon OpenAI offer if for-profit company plans dropped' | BreakingNews.ie

Elon Musk has said he will abandon his 97.4 billion dollar offer to buy the non-profit organisation behind OpenAI if the ChatGPT maker drops its plan to convert into a for-profit company. "If OpenAI, Inc's board is prepared to preserve the charity's mission and stipulate to take the 'for sale' sign off its assets by halting its conversion, Musk will withdraw the bid," lawyers for the billionaire said in a filing to a California court on Wednesday. "Otherwise, the charity must be compensated by what an arms-length buyer will pay for its assets." Mr Musk and a group of investors made their offer earlier this week, in the latest twist to a dispute with the artificial intelligence company that he helped found a decade ago. OpenAI is controlled by a non-profit board bound to its original mission of safely building better-than-human AI for public benefit. Now a fast-growing business, it unveiled plans last year to formally change its corporate structure. Mr Musk and his own AI start-up, xAI, and a consortium of investment firms want to acquire the non-profit's controlling stake in the for-profit OpenAI subsidiary. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman quickly rejected the unsolicited bid in a post on social media and told questioners at a Paris summit on AI that the company is not for sale. The chairman of OpenAI's board, Bret Taylor, echoed those remarks at an event on Wednesday. Mr Musk and Mr Altman helped start OpenAI in 2015 and later competed over who should lead it before Mr Musk resigned from the board in 2018. Mr Musk again criticised Mr Altman's management on Thursday during a video call to the World Governments Summit in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, describing it as akin to a non-profit aimed at saving the Amazon rainforest becoming a "lumber company that chops down the trees". Mr Altman has repeatedly countered that Mr Musk's legal challenges to OpenAI are motivated by his role as a competitor. Mr Musk has asked a California federal judge to block OpenAI's for-profit conversion on allegations ranging from breach of contract to anti-trust violations. The judge has expressed scepticism about some of Mr Musk's arguments but has not yet issued a ruling.

OpenAI says Musk's takeover bid contradicts his lawsuit against it

(Reuters) - Billionaire Elon Musk's bid to buy OpenAI, which wants to be a for-profit entity, clashes with his lawsuit arguing that assets of the ChatGPT maker should not be for private gain, OpenAI wrote in a letter it submitted to a federal court on Wednesday. On Monday, a consortium of investors led by Elon Musk offered $97.4 billion to buy the assets of OpenAI's nonprofit, in another salvo from the world's richest man against the artificial intelligence startup. Musk sued OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and others in August and has asked a U.S. district judge to block OpenAI's attempt to transition to a for-profit entity. OpenAI in its letter said Musk had contradicted himself when making "an improper bid to undermine a competitor." Musk's court filings assert that OpenAI's assets must remain within a charitable trust and should not be transferred for private gain. That contrasts with his proposed acquisition which seeks to transfer all OpenAI assets to him and his private investors, OpenAI said. Representatives for Musk did not respond to an emailed request for comment. Musk co-founded OpenAI with Altman in 2015 as a nonprofit but left before ChatGPT went viral at the end of 2022. He founded the competing AI startup xAI in 2023. OpenAI has said it wants to become a for-profit organization to secure the capital needed for developing the best AI models. (Reporting by Anna Tong in San Francisco; Editing by Christopher Cushing)

OpenAI Says Musk's Takeover Bid Contradicts His Lawsuit Against It

(Reuters) - Billionaire Elon Musk's bid to buy OpenAI, which wants to be a for-profit entity, clashes with his lawsuit arguing that assets of the ChatGPT maker should not be for private gain, OpenAI wrote in a letter it submitted to a federal court on Wednesday. On Monday, a consortium of investors led by Elon Musk offered $97.4 billion to buy the assets of OpenAI's nonprofit, in another salvo from the world's richest man against the artificial intelligence startup. Musk sued OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and others in August and has asked a U.S. district judge to block OpenAI's attempt to transition to a for-profit entity. OpenAI in its letter said Musk had contradicted himself when making "an improper bid to undermine a competitor." Musk's court filings assert that OpenAI's assets must remain within a charitable trust and should not be transferred for private gain. That contrasts with his proposed acquisition which seeks to transfer all OpenAI assets to him and his private investors, OpenAI said. Representatives for Musk did not respond to an emailed request for comment. Musk co-founded OpenAI with Altman in 2015 as a nonprofit but left before ChatGPT went viral at the end of 2022. He founded the competing AI startup xAI in 2023. OpenAI has said it wants to become a for-profit organization to secure the capital needed for developing the best AI models. (Reporting by Anna Tong in San Francisco; Editing by Christopher Cushing)

Musk to withdraw OpenAI bid if board agrees to charity terms, lawyers say

Feb 13 (Reuters) - Elon Musk will withdraw his bid for OpenAI's non-profit arm if the board agrees to preserve the charity's mission, lawyers for Musk said in a court filing dated Wednesday. If OpenAI board is prepared to preserve the charity's mission and stipulate to take the "for sale" sign off its assets by halting its conversion, Musk will withdraw the bid, the filing said. On Monday, a consortium of investors led by Elon Musk offered $97.4 billion to buy the assets of OpenAI's non-profit, in another salvo from the world's richest man against the artificial intelligence startup. Reporting by Shivani Tanna in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D'Souza Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab Suggested Topics:Artificial IntelligenceADAS, AV & SafetyPartnerships & M&ASoftware-Defined VehicleSustainable & EV Supply Chain

Elon Musk to withdraw OpenAI bid if board agrees to charity terms, lawyers say

If OpenAI board is prepared to preserve the charity's mission and stipulate to take the "for sale" sign off its assets by halting its conversion, Musk will withdraw the bid, the filing said.Elon Musk will withdraw his bid for OpenAI's non-profit arm if the board agrees to preserve the charity's mission, lawyers for Musk said in a court filing dated Wednesday. If OpenAI board is prepared to preserve the charity's mission and stipulate to take the "for sale" sign off its assets by halting its conversion, Musk will withdraw the bid, the filing said. On Monday, a consortium of investors led by Elon Musk offered $97.4 billion to buy the assets of OpenAI's non-profit, in another salvo from the world's richest man against the artificial intelligence startup. Also Read: ET Explainer: Elon Musk-led group offers $97.4 billion to buy Open AI

Musk Says He'll Withdraw $97.4 Billion Bid for OpenAI on 1 Condition

Elon Musk says he will abandon his $97.4 billion offer to buy the nonprofit behind OpenAI if the ChatGPT maker drops its plan to convert into a for-profit company. "If OpenAI, Inc.'s Board is prepared to preserve the charity's mission and stipulate to take the 'for sale' sign off its assets by halting its conversion, Musk will withdraw the bid," lawyers for the billionaire said in a filing to a California court on Wednesday. "Otherwise, the charity must be compensated by what an arms-length buyer will pay for its assets." Musk and a group of investors made their offer earlier this week, in the latest twist to a dispute with the artificial intelligence company that he helped found a decade ago.

Musk's OpenAI Bid Debunks Claims in Court Battle, Altman Says

Elon Musk's bid to buy OpenAI debunks arguments he's making in court that the artificial intelligence startup's assets cannot be "transferred away" for "private gain," lawyers for the startup and chief executive officer Sam Altman said in a court filing. The unsolicited Feb. 10 offer by Musk and a coalition of deep-pocketed investors to acquire OpenAI for $97.4 billion shows that his request for a court order immediately blocking OpenAI's conversion to a for-profit business is "an improper bid to undermine a competitor," according to the filing Wednesday in federal court in Oakland, California.

OpenAI says Musk's takeover bid contradicts his lawsuit against it - VnExpress International

On Monday, a consortium of investors led by Elon Musk offered US$97.4 billion to buy the assets of OpenAI's nonprofit, in another salvo from the world's richest man against the artificial intelligence startup. Musk sued OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and others in August and has asked a U.S. district judge to block OpenAI's attempt to transition to a for-profit entity. OpenAI in its letter said Musk had contradicted himself when making "an improper bid to undermine a competitor." Musk's court filings assert that OpenAI's assets must remain within a charitable trust and should not be transferred for private gain. That contrasts with his proposed acquisition which seeks to transfer all OpenAI assets to him and his private investors, OpenAI said. Representatives for Musk did not respond to an emailed request for comment. Musk co-founded OpenAI with Altman in 2015 as a nonprofit but left before ChatGPT went viral at the end of 2022. He founded the competing AI startup xAI in 2023. OpenAI has said it wants to become a for-profit organization to secure the capital needed for developing the best AI models.