Elon Musk has been at odds with OpenAI for some time now. The owner of X (FKA Twitter) is not happy with the company’s intentions to change its management structure to for-profit. He has even tried to sue the AI-focused firm on multiple occasions to try to stop the future change, without any success. Musk’s latest move was a huge offer to OpenAI, which has been “unanimously” rejected by the board.
Sam Altman did not take bid seriously
A previous report by the Wall Street Journal revealed that a group of investors, led by xAI (X’s AI-focused division), offered around $97.4 billion to OpenAI. The offer, which was unsolicited, sought to take over the nonprofit branch of OpenAI controlled by the for-profit entity—which is already active and raising funds with the promise of completing the transformation in the coming months.
“It’s time for OpenAI to return to the open-source, safety-focused force for good it once was,” Musk said a few days ago. “We will make sure that happens,” the statement, shared by his lawyer, added.
Reactions to Musk’s offer were swift. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman rejected the possibility of accepting the X owner’s bid. He even hinted that the move was a strategy to try to delay OpenAI’s model change process. “Elon tries all sorts of things for a long time. This is the latest—you know, this week’s episode. I think he’s probably just trying to slow us down,” he stated. Previously, Altman had mockingly responded to the offer on X/Twitter. “No thank you, but we will buy Twitter for $9.74 billion if you [Musk] want,” he said in a post.
OpenAI’s board unanimously rejects Elon Musk’s offer
This week, OpenAI’s board confirmed its position regarding Musk’s bid. “OpenAI is not for sale, and the board has unanimously rejected Mr. Musk’s latest attempt to disrupt its competition,” said Bret Taylor, board chair, in an official statement. “Any potential reorganization of OpenAI will strengthen our nonprofit and its mission to ensure AGI benefits all of humanity.”
OpenAI’s current management structure seems to make things more difficult for Musk. As a nonprofit company, it doesn’t have to answer to shareholders. In a for-profit model, the board might have at least considered the big offer to increase investors’ profits. However, Musk can’t wait for the OpenAI transformation to be complete before he bids. After all, that is precisely what he is trying to prevent.