Dado Ruvic | Reuters Elon Musk will withdraw his $97.4 billion bid for OpenAI’s nonprofit 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 nonprofit 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 nonprofit 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. watch now
Musk reiterated those concerns on Thursday, speaking to an audience via video link at the World Governments Summit in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
Asked by the UAE’s AI minister, Omar al Olama, whether a company like OpenAI could really scale as a nonprofit, Musk replied:“I think the evidence was there in that OpenAI has gotten this far while having at least a sort of dual profit, nonprofit role. What they’re trying to do now is completely delete the nonprofit. And that seems really going too far.”“I provided all of the funding for OpenAI for the first almost $50 million for nothing, as a nonprofit, and it was meant to be open source,” Musk went on. “And so, you know, I think this is analogous to, […]
Musk will withdraw OpenAI bid if ChatGPT maker stays nonprofit, lawyers say
