IBL News | New York
The OpenAI’s Board of Directors rejected yesterday the Elon Musk investment group’s unsolicited offer of $97.4 billion to gain control of the AI company.
In a statement, Bret Taylor, the chairman of the OpenAI board, said, “OpenAI is not for sale, and the board has unanimously rejected Mr. Musk’s latest attempt to disrupt his competition.” Bret Taylor was referring to Mr. Musk’s own AI company, xAI.
OpenAI sent a letter on Friday to Marc Toberoff, the lawyer representing Musk, saying that the offer was “not in the best interests of OpenAI’s mission,” which is to build artificial intelligence that benefits “all of humanity.”
Toberoff said in a statement sent to The New York Times: “This comes as no surprise, given that Altman and Board chair, Taylor, already rejected Musk’s $97 billion bid while stating they had not yet received it. But we are surprised to see the Board, which has strict fiduciary duties to carefully consider the bid in good faith on behalf of the charity, use the same kind of deflective double-talk Altman used in testifying to the Senate.”
Elon Musk also filed a lawsuit in federal court last year to block OpenAI’s restructuring plans.
This week, Robert Bonta, California’s attorney general, said that the state was scrutinizing OpenAI’s plan to shift to a for-profit structure.
xAI raised $6 billion in December, saying it would use the money to build infrastructure and accelerate research and development. BlackRock, Fidelity, Sequoia Capital, and other investors participated in the funding.
