Elon Musk has offered to withdraw his $97.4 billion bid to acquire OpenAI‘s nonprofit arm if the organisation’s board agrees to preserve its charitable mission and halt its conversion to a for-profit entity. In a recent court filing, Musk’s lawyer stated that the offer is serious and that the nonprofit should be compensated at fair market value for its assets.
What Musk’s lawyers said in court filing
The court filing (seen by the news agency Reuters) submitted by Musk’s lawyers said: “If (the) OpenAI 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.”
If this doesn’t happen, “the charity must be compensated by what an arms-length buyer will pay for its assets,” the filing added.
The filing further stated that Musk’s “serious offer” was intended to support the charity’s mission.
Sam Altman says OpenAI is not for sale
Earlier this week, Musk launched a $97.4 billion bid to acquire OpenAI, intensifying his rivalry with CEO Sam Altman over control of the AI company.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Musk’s attorney, Marc Toberoff also submitted the unsolicited offer to OpenAI’s board. This move could disrupt Altman’s plans to transition OpenAI into a for-profit entity and develop the ambitious AI infrastructure project, Stargate.
Altman quickly rejected the proposal on social media platform X, by sarcastically responding, “no thank you but we will buy twitter for $9.74 billion if you want.” Musk retaliated by calling Altman a “Swindler” and later referring to him as “Scam Altman.”
Musk’s bid is backed by his AI venture, xAI, and investors including Valor Equity Partners, Baron Capital, Atreides Management, Vy Capital, and Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel. The investor group has pledged to match or exceed any competing offers.