OpenAI says its board of directors ‘unanimously’ rejects Elon Musk’s bid

OpenAI’s board of administrators has “unanimously” rejected billionaire Elon Musk’s provide to purchase the nonprofit that successfully governs OpenAI, the corporate stated on Friday.

In a press release shared by way of OpenAI’s press account on X, Bret Taylor, board chair, known as Musk’s bid “an try to disrupt his competitors.”

“OpenAI shouldn’t be on the market, and the board has unanimously rejected Mr. Musk’s newest try to disrupt his competitors,” Taylor stated. “Any potential reorganization of OpenAI will strengthen our nonprofit and its mission to make sure [artificial general intelligence] advantages all of humanity.”

The New York Occasions reported that OpenAI additionally despatched a letter to Musk’s lawyer, Marc Toberoff, saying that the bid was “not in the very best pursuits of [OpenAI’s] mission.”

On Monday, Musk, his AI firm, xAI, and a gaggle of buyers supplied to purchase OpenAI’s nonprofit for $97.4 billion. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and the corporate’s board administrators shortly — however not formally — dismissed the unsolicited proposal. In a assertion, Andy Nussbaum, the counsel representing OpenAI’s board, stated Musk’s bid “doesn’t set a worth for [OpenAI’s] nonprofit” and that the nonprofit is “not on the market.”

Musk, an OpenAI co-founder, final 12 months introduced a lawsuit towards the corporate and Altman that alleges that OpenAI engaged in anticompetitive habits and fraud, amongst different offenses.

OpenAI was based as a nonprofit earlier than it transitioned to a “capped-profit” construction in 2019. The nonprofit is the only real controlling shareholder of the capped-profit OpenAI company, which retains formal fiduciary duty to the nonprofit’s constitution. OpenAI is now within the means of restructuring — this time to a standard for-profit firm, particularly a public profit company. However Musk, by way of the lawsuit, is looking for to enjoin the conversion.

In a court docket submitting on Wednesday, attorneys for Musk stated the billionaire will withdraw his bid if OpenAI’s board “protect[s] the charity’s mission” and halts OpenAI’s conversion to a for-profit. In a submitting earlier the identical day, attorneys for OpenAI known as Musk’s transfer to take management of the corporate “an improper bid to undermine a competitor,” and a contradiction of his place in court docket {that a} switch of the startup’s property by way of restructuring would breach its mission as a charitable belief.

Musk’s allies and Altman have traded blows over the bid this week. In a podcast interview on Thursday, Ari Emanual, one of many backers of Musk’s provide for the OpenAI nonprofit, known as Altman a “phony” and “attempting to get away with dishonest the charity and its unique mission.” Altman has characterised Musk’s bid as “an try to sluggish [OpenAI] down,” and quipped that Musk’s life is “from a place of insecurity.”