Elon Musk said in a court filing late Wednesday that he would withdraw a $97.4 billion bid to control Openai if the company removes years of efforts to change its corporate structure.
Musk and the investor consortium offered to buy assets from the nonprofit that manages OpenRi on Monday, and a long-standing relationship between Musk and OpenRi's CEO Sam Altman. The feud escalated about the future of artificial intelligence. Altman is in the process of changing Openai's corporate structure by shifting the company's management from a nonprofit to Openai investors, including Microsoft.
Two days later, Openai's board of directors questioned the rationale for the bid and denounced Musk of hypocrisy. Within hours, Musk's legal team will withdraw their bid if Openai's board of directors agrees to maintain the nonprofit's mission and maintain “registration for sale” of assets.” He said, responding to a new court filing.
The feud between Musk and Altman is deeply personal. Musk, along with Altman and others in 2015, helped Openai be a nonprofit organization. When Musk left the organization in 2018 after a fight for control, Altman attached Openai to a commercial enterprise and was able to collect the bulk of the money needed to build AI technology. .
The nonprofit maintained control of the company. Last year, Altman and his colleagues began working on plans to shift the company's management from a nonprofit to Openai investors. Musk's bid can complicate the plan.
To separate Openai from the nonprofit committee, Altman and his colleagues will need to provide compensation. Openai may, for example, pay a nonprofit or acquire minority stakes in the company.
However, non-commercial assets are not given value. Musk is about to set it up with his bid. This means Openai's for-profit sector must spend more to gain independence from nonprofits.
Openai is unlikely to remove plans to separate from nonprofits. Under the terms of the final investment round, the company's management must be shifted from nonprofit organizations within two years. Otherwise, the funds will be converted into debt, according to documents reviewed by the New York Times.
Musk is also suing Openry to block plans for restructuring.
Openai is currently working to close a $40 billion funding transaction that doubles its valuation from just four months ago to around $300 billion.
(Times sued Openai and Microsoft, alleging that it infringes copyright infringement of news content related to AI systems. Both companies denied the allegations in the lawsuit.)
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