Lawyers for Elon Musk said Wednesday that the Tesla CEO would withdraw his $97.4 billion bid to purchase OpenAI if the company agreed to reverse course on its plans to become a for-profit company.
In a Northern California court filing, Mr. Musk’s lawyers reasserted the seriousness of their client’s offer but added that it would disappear if OpenAI decided to remain a nonprofit.
“A Musk-led consortium has submitted a serious offer that would go to the charity in furtherance of its mission,” the lawyers wrote. “However, 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.”
This week’s filing comes just days after Mr. Musk’s bombshell offer to purchase the nonprofit that controls OpenAI. Mr. Musk made the offer alongside his AI company xAI and a string of allied investors.
The bid was soundly rejected by OpenAI and its leader Sam Altman, who poked fun at the offer in an X post following the offer.
“No thank you but will buy twitter for $9.74 billion if you want,” Mr. Altman posted, referencing the degraded value of the social media site since Mr. Musk purchased it in late 2022.
On Wednesday, OpenAI’s lawyers openly criticized Mr. Musk’s bid, calling it an obvious attempt to undermine his competition in the AI space.
Mr. Musk’s bid to take control of OpenAI follows a massive lawsuit brought by the X owner last year, accusing the company of fraud and betraying its founding message. Mr. Musk was a founding member of OpenAI but left after the company refused to give him a CEO position, according to Mr. Altman.
OpenAI was founded as a nonprofit organization but transitioned into a “capped-profit” structure in 2019. Recently, the company announced it would formally transition into a for-profit company or a public benefit corporation.
After several successful funding rounds in 2024, OpenAI is currently valued at $157 billion.
• Vaughn Cockayne can be reached at vcockayne@washingtontimes.com.