Musk says he’ll withdraw $97.4 billion bid for OpenAI if it remains nonprofit

Elon Musk has said he will abandon his $97.4 billion offer to buy artificial intelligence company OpenAI if it agrees to “preserve its mission” and remain a nonprofit organization.

In court documents filed Wednesday, lawyers for the world’s richest man, who already owns social media company X, said the bid would be dropped if the board of the ChatGPT maker agreed to “take the ‘for sale’ sign off.”

Musk and a group of investors made their offer earlier this week, in the latest twist to a dispute with the artificial intelligence company that he helped found a decade ago. It follows recent public feuding between Musk and OpenAI founder Sam Altman.

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“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,” the court filing said. “Otherwise, the charity must be compensated by what an arms-length buyer will pay for its assets.”

OpenAI is controlled by a nonprofit board bound to its original mission of safely building better-than-human AI for public benefit. Last year, following rapid growth to the business, it revealed plans to formally change its corporate structure.

Musk and his own AI startup, xAI, and a consortium of investment firms want to acquire OpenAI so they can revert it back to its original charitable mission as a nonprofit research lab, they have said. A nonprofit OpenAI would not be a business rival to Musk’s private company xAI, which recently raised $6 billion in new investor funds.

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Altman quickly rejected the unsolicited bid in a post on social media after it was offered, and told questioners at a Paris summit on AI that the company is not for sale.

He and Musk have been feuding for some time over OpenAI, which they co-founded in 2015.

In the time since the operation’s inception, the pair have been driven apart by disputes over several issues, including whether OpenAI should be run for profit. Musk resigned from its board in 2018.

Altman previously said that Musk was an “unhappy” person who is motivated by “insecurity.” After Musk announced his bid for OpenAI, Altman joked that he would instead buy X for $9.74 billion, a tenth of the price.

Since then the two have traded barbs online, with Mr Musk calling the OpenAI boss “Scam Altman.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.