Elon Musk Says He Will Drop $97.4 Billion Bid for OpenAI on One Condition

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For the non-profit organization in control of OpenAI, one condition must be met: CEO Sam Altman must abandon his plan to transform the company behind ChatGPT into a for-profit business.

Musk's lawyers said in a court filing on Wednesday that if OpenAI's board is willing to preserve the charity's mission and remove the 'for sale' sign from its assets by stopping the conversion process, Musk will withdraw his bid. Otherwise, the charity should be paid the amount an independent buyer would pay for its assets.

Altman's efforts to turn OpenAI into a for-profit company have been at the center of his dispute with Musk in recent years. Musk was one of the co-founders of OpenAI, which he established in 2015 along with Altman and several other top executives. However, Musk strongly disagrees with Altman's plan to change the company's status from a non-profit to a for-profit enterprise.

Last year over the move, saying they "betrayed" OpenAI's founding principles.

It's time for OpenAI to go back to being the open-source, safety-focused force for good it once was," Musk said in a statement released by his lawyer, Marc Toberoff, on Monday. "We will see to it that that happens.

Musk's $97.4 billion offer, which includes Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel among several investors, throws a costly hurdle in Altman's path to selling the company.

Altman quickly rejected the offer on Tuesday, saying, "We're not for sale." He also took a jab at Musk on social media, adding, "No thank you … but we will buy Twitter for $9.74 billion if you want." (It's worth noting that Musk purchased Twitter for $44 billion in 2022.)

On Tuesday, he stated, "OpenAI is not for sale" at an event hosted by the Wall Street Journal in Palo Alto; he considered the bid to be "largely a distraction."

Elon Musk, who resigned from OpenAI's board in 2018, has been critical of the company recently.

He suggested changing its name to "ClosedAI" in March 2024, citing a shift away from its original goal of providing open-source AI technology for everyone's benefit. The owner also expressed his dissatisfaction with OpenAI's planned corporate restructuring back in September.

. "That is illegal."

Bloomberg reported in September that Altman would end up with a 7% equity stake in OpenAI if it becomes a for-profit business, which would mean his share would be worth $23.8 billion at that valuation.

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