OpenAI’s board of directors has officially turned down a $97.4 billion offer from Elon Musk and other investors to buy the company. In a statement posted on X, OpenAI Board Chair Bret Taylor emphasized that “OpenAI is not for sale” and that the board unanimously rejected Musk’s attempt to disrupt the competition. This rejection adds to the ongoing conflict between Musk and OpenAI, particularly over the company’s plan to restructure. OpenAI, which was originally founded as a non-profit research lab by Musk and CEO Sam Altman, is now aiming for a restructuring that would make it easier to raise funds and offer higher returns to investors and employees. Musk has criticized this plan, arguing that it goes against the company’s non-profit mission. On Monday, Musk and a group of investors proposed buying the company and returning it to its roots as an “open-source, safety-focused force.” This bid could have drastically reshaped the AI industry and bolstered Musk’s position, as he already runs the OpenAI competitor xAI. OpenAI quickly rejected Elon Musk’s offer to purchase the company, with CEO Sam Altman humorously responding on X, saying, “no thank you but we will buy Twitter for $9.74 billion if you want.”
Bret Taylor, who also chairs the board of X (formerly Twitter) during Musk’s attempt to acquire that company, issued a statement on behalf of OpenAI’s board, asserting that any potential restructuring would help strengthen the organization’s nonprofit status and ensure that Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) benefits all of humanity.
Marc Toberoff, an attorney for the Musk-led investor group, stated that the rejection was not unexpected, considering Altman’s previous remarks, but he took issue with Altman’s claim that OpenAI wasn’t for sale. Toberoff criticized the board, arguing that their duty was to consider the offer carefully on behalf of the nonprofit and suggested that the board was essentially selling the company to itself at a fraction of Musk’s offer. He questioned how this would benefit humanity.
This isn’t the first time Musk has attempted to challenge OpenAI’s restructuring plans. In June 2024, Musk filed a lawsuit against OpenAI but withdrew it after the company released emails showing Musk acknowledging that OpenAI needed to make substantial profits to fund its AI projects, which contradicted his earlier claims that the company was wrongfully pursuing profit. Musk filed another lawsuit in August 2024, accusing OpenAI of racing to develop powerful AGI technology purely for profit and even accused them of racketeering.
OpenAI, on the other hand, has suggested that Musk’s actions stem from jealousy over no longer being involved in the company after leaving in 2018, following an unsuccessful attempt to have Tesla acquire OpenAI. During an interview at the AI Summit in Paris, Altman expressed his wish that Musk would simply compete by creating a better product.