OpenAI officially refuses to 'sell itself' to billionaire Elon Musk

OpenAI insists it is not for sale, and has officially rejected billionaire Elon Musk's nearly $100 billion acquisition offer.

Billionaire Elon Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman (right) have been at odds with each other for years - Photo: AFP

On February 14 (US time), OpenAI's board of directors rejected a $97.4 billion offer from billionaire Elon Musk, affirming that the start-up is not for sale and any future offers related to this issue are dishonest.

Billionaire Musk offered to buy the company that owns ChatGPT, because he was concerned that this start-up would become a for-profit company, when it recently attracted more capital and was a leader in the global artificial intelligence (AI) industry.

“OpenAI is not for sale, and the board unanimously rejected Mr. Musk’s latest attempt to block its competitor.

Any restructuring of OpenAI will reinforce its nonprofit nature and its mission to ensure artificial general intelligence (AGI) benefits humanity,” OpenAI quoted President Bret Taylor as saying in a statement posted on X.

Last weekend, CEO Sam Altman also confirmed to Axios that OpenAI is not for sale. Previously, Mr. Altman refused this offer by replying "no thanks" on X, causing billionaire Musk to retort that he is a "fraud".

In a court filing on February 12, Mr. Musk’s lawyer asserted that the alliance, including the billionaire’s xAI start-up, would withdraw its offer to buy OpenAI’s nonprofit arm if the company canceled its plan to become a for-profit enterprise.

Billionaire Musk co-founded OpenAI with Mr. Altman, but later left.

After Musk left the start-up in 2019, OpenAI established a for-profit arm that has attracted hundreds of billions of dollars in funding, according to Reuters, prompting accusations from the billionaire that OpenAI has violated its original mission by putting profit above the public interest.

In August 2024, Mr. Musk sued CEO Altman, OpenAI, and the biggest supporter of this start-up, billionaire Bill Gates' Microsoft.

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/openai-chinh-thuc-tu-choi-ban-minh-cho-ti-phu-elon-musk-20250215075544238.htm