A consortium led by Elon Musk will withdraw its $97.4 billion offer to buy OpenAI if the ChatGPT developer abandons plans to become a commercial organization.
A consortium led by Elon Musk will withdraw its $97.4 billion offer to buy OpenAI if the ChatGPT developer abandons plans to become a commercial organization.
Reuters reports this, citing a court filing by the billionaire’s lawyers.
«If the OpenAI board is willing to preserve the charity’s mission and remove the ‘for sale’ sign from its assets, halting these transformations, then Musk will withdraw his offer. The charity should be compensated with the amount that an independent buyer would pay for its assets,» the statement to the US District Court for the Northern District of California reads.
Recall that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said this week that the nonprofit that controls the company is not for sale, calling Musk’s bid «ridiculous.»
OpenAI’s board plans to reject Musk’s offer because «a nonprofit is not for sale, and the nonprofit board’s mission is to ensure AI benefits humanity.»
Recall that in 2015, Musk and Altman founded OpenAI as a non-profit organization, but Altman left it in 2018, before the company began to develop, due to disagreements over areas of activity and sources of funding.
Altman then became CEO of OpenAI and launched a commercial division at the startup to secure funding from investors like Microsoft.
Altman is currently working on a plan to restructure the core business into a for-profit firm that will no longer be controlled by the nonprofit board. However, the nonprofit will continue to exist and have a stake in the for-profit company. Musk has sued to prevent this transition.
Recall that recently, Musk’s lawyer confirmed to journalists an official offer from a group of investors led by the billionaire to acquire OpenAI.
The company was offered $97.4 billion. But that’s far below the $157 billion OpenAI was valued at in October of last year. Now, according to many experts, the company’s capitalization could well exceed $300 billion.
