Elon Musk has revealed that he will withdraw his $97.4 billion offer to purchase OpenAI provided its board of directors accepts his one condition. According to the Tesla boss, he wants the board to stop the company from moving to a for-profit business and preserve its mission.
The claim was released in a filing submitted to the US District Court of the Northern District of California on Wednesday, with the filing noting that Musk is serious about purchasing the company. The filing reads, [if ] “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.”
[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.”In response to the filing, OpenAI’s lawyers mentioned that Musk is going against what he said in court, noting that the bid was made to undercut a major competitor. Musk had initially mentioned that moving the company’s assets in a restructuring would go against its vision as a charitable trust.
Elon Musk and Sam Altman’s saga continues
OpenAI has been in the middle of the scuffle between Elon Musk and Sam Altman, with the two Silicon Valley celebrities fighting over a company they co-founded in 2015. The company was developed to advance neural networks and create the next step in artificial intelligence, with the duo raising a billion dollars for its launch. The mission is entitled an AI model that is capable of learning from human interaction to perform several tasks.
According to Altman, he suggested that the company remained non-profit, while Musk was unsure of the direction that he wanted it to go. However, after two years before ChatGPT was launched, Musk asked US politicians to step in and regulate AI. He mentioned that it was an existential risk that was facing humanity. He also tried to take over the company, a move that was rejected by Altman and the other co-founders.
Because of his unsuccessful idea, the Tesla boss eventually left the company in 2018, leaving with his ideas for investments. Last year, he filed a lawsuit against Sam Altman, noting that the OpenAI exec was taking the company in the for-profit direction and turning it into a closed branch of Microsoft. Fast forward to August 2024, he filed another lawsuit, accusing Sam Altman of tricking him into helping him launch the business.
In response, OpenAI filed its lawsuit, mentioning that Musk was running a campaign to harass people. Musk recently announced a plan by him and another group of investors to purchase the company, mentioning that they were going to buy the charity that ran the company. The move was shut down, with Altman and the company’s lawyers mentioning that the company was not for sale. Presently, OpenAI is due for a restructure, with the company going to a for-profit route, which will make it a public benefit corporation.
In a recent interview where Altman was interviewed about Musk’s bid, he mentioned that it was his twisted way of slowing down the process. He mentioned that Musk attacks everything in his life from a position of insecurity. He also took to X to reject the bid, mentioning that they could buy X for 10% of the funds if Musk wanted. “No thank you, [but] we will buy Twitter for $9.74 billion if you want,” he said. Musk then replied one word in response: “Swindler.”