Officially .. “OpenAI” rejects Musk’s acquisition

OpenAI has officially rejected billionaire Elon Musk’s proposal to acquire the non-profit parent company of the emerging artificial intelligence model for $ 97.4 billion.

In a short letter to Musk’s lawyers on Friday, OpenAI’s lawyer, William Savitt, said that the OpenAI board of directors reviewed the proposal and determined that the billionaire’s highly publicized “offer” “is not in fact an offer at all.”

Savit wrote to Mark Toberoff that “the proposal, even as it was first presented, is not in the best interests of OAI’s mission and has been rejected.” And that “the OAI board’s decision on this matter was unanimous.”

OpenAI President Bret Taylor said in a statement that the company is “not for sale.” He wrote, referring to artificial intelligence: “Any potential reorganization of OpenAI will strengthen our non-profit organization and its mission to ensure that general artificial intelligence benefits all of humanity.”

On Monday, Musk, along with his artificial intelligence company xAI and a coalition of investors, launched a $97.4 billion bid to buy OpenAI’s nonprofit arm, accusing the company and its CEO Sam Altman of abandoning its original mission of developing AI for good and instead pursuing profits.

Altman rejected the offer, telling CNBC that the move was simply an effort by Musk to “slow down a competitor.”

OpenAI was initially founded as a nonprofit in 2015 and later transitioned to a “minus-profit” model in 2019. Musk helped launch the AI ​​research company, to which he says he donated $50 million.

Since stepping down from the company’s board in 2018, the Tesla and SpaceX founder has expressed deep frustration with OpenAI’s move toward becoming a for-profit.