Altman says Musk messing with OpenAI
NEW YORK/PARIS — The nonprofit that controls ChatGPT maker OpenAI is not for sale, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told Reuters on Tuesday when asked about Elon Musk’s offer to buy it.
“I have nothing to say. I mean, it’s ridiculous,” Altman said on the sidelines of an AI summit in Paris. A consortium led by Musk said on Monday it had offered $97.4 billion to buy the nonprofit that controls OpenAI, another salvo in the billionaire’s fight to block the artificial intelligence startup from transitioning to a for-profit firm.
In an internal message to OpenAI employees on Monday, Altman said the board, though it had not officially reviewed the offer, planned to reject it based on the interest of OpenAI’s mission.
However, OpenAI’s board has not yet received a formal bid from a Musk-led consortium, although a lawyer for the billionaire said the offer had been sent to OpenAI’s outside counsel.
Sent by email
Musk’s lawyer, Marc Toberoff, told Reuters that he sent the offer by email on Monday to OpenAI’s outside counsel at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz. The law firm did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The bid—attached to an email—was in the form of a “detailed four-page letter of intent” to purchase OpenAI’s assets, signed by Musk and other investors and addressed to the board, Toberoff said.
“Whether Sam Altman chose to provide or withhold this from OpenAI’s other board members is outside of our control,” he said, referring to OpenAI’s CEO.
Musk cofounded OpenAI with Altman in 2015 as a nonprofit, but left before the company took off due to a disagreement over the company’s direction and funding sources with Altman and other cofounders.
In 2023, he launched the competing AI startup, xAI. Musk, the CEO of Tesla and owner of social media firm X, is a close ally of US President Donald Trump.
