OpenAI Board Unanimously Rejects Musk's Bid

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OpenAI's board of directors unanimously turned down billionaire Elon Musk's offer to purchase the nonprofit that oversees OpenAI, the company announced on Friday. In a statement posted on X from OpenAI's press account, board chair Bret Taylor described Musk's bid as "an attempt to disrupt his competition." "OpenAI is not for sale, and the board has unanimously rejected Mr. Musk's latest attempt to disrupt his competition," Taylor stated. "Any potential reorganization of OpenAI will strengthen our nonprofit and its mission to ensure [artificial general intelligence] benefits all of humanity." The New York Times reported that OpenAI also sent a letter to Musk's attorney, Marc Toberoff, stating that the bid was "not in the best interests of [OpenAI's] mission." On Monday, Musk, along with his AI company xAI and a group of investors, proposed to buy OpenAI's nonprofit for $97.4 billion. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and the company's board of directors swiftly, though informally, rejected the unsolicited offer. Andy Nussbaum, the counsel for OpenAI's board, remarked in a statement that Musk's bid "doesn't set a value for [OpenAI's] nonprofit" and emphasized that the nonprofit is "not for sale." Musk, who co-founded OpenAI, filed a lawsuit against the company and Altman last year, accusing them of anticompetitive behavior and fraud, among other charges. Originally established as a nonprofit, OpenAI shifted to a "capped-profit" model in 2019. The nonprofit remains the sole controlling shareholder of the capped-profit OpenAI corporation, which is bound by fiduciary responsibility to the nonprofit's charter. OpenAI is currently restructuring into a traditional for-profit entity, specifically a public benefit corporation. However, Musk's lawsuit aims to prevent this conversion. In a court filing on Wednesday, Musk's lawyers indicated that the billionaire would retract his bid if OpenAI's board "preserves the charity's mission" and stops the transition to a for-profit status. Earlier that day, OpenAI's attorneys labeled Musk's attempt to take control of the company as "an improper bid to undermine a competitor," and argued that it contradicts his stance in court that transferring the startup's assets through restructuring would violate its mission as a charitable trust. This week, allies of Musk and Altman have been at odds over the bid. In a Thursday podcast interview, Ari Emanuel, a supporter of Musk's offer for the OpenAI nonprofit, called Altman a "phony" who is "trying to get away with cheating the charity and its original mission." Altman, in response, described Musk's bid as "an attempt to slow [OpenAI] down," and suggested that Musk's actions stem "from a position of insecurity."

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