February 12, 2025 – According to a report by Reuters, despite Elon Musk’s lawyer stating that an acquisition offer has been sent to OpenAI’s external legal advisor, the OpenAI board has not yet officially received a bid from the consortium led by Musk.
In an interview on Tuesday local time, Sam Altman responded that OpenAI is not for sale. This response comes at a time when Musk is attempting to prevent OpenAI’s transition from being a non-profit organization to being profit-oriented.
“I have no comment, it’s ridiculous,” Altman said while attending an artificial intelligence summit in Paris. “The company won’t be sold. This is just another way for Musk to interfere with us.”
On Monday, Altman stated in an internal letter to OpenAI employees that although the board has not officially discussed the offer, they plan to reject it based on OpenAI’s mission.
Musk and Altman co-founded OpenAI in 2015 as a non-profit organization. However, due to disagreements over the company’s direction and funding sources, Musk chose to withdraw before OpenAI’s rise. In 2023, he founded a competing company called xAI.
Currently, OpenAI is seeking $40 billion in funding and advancing its transition from being a non-profit to being profit-oriented to ensure sufficient funding for the development of advanced AI models. This transition involves valuing OpenAI’s non-profit organization’s control over its profit-making subsidiary.
An informed source revealed on Tuesday that the OpenAI board has not yet received a formal bid from Musk’s consortium, making this unauthorized acquisition attempt even more confusing. As a leading artificial intelligence company, OpenAI is currently seeking financing and undergoing structural adjustments.
Musk’s lawyer, Mark Toberoff, stated that he sent the acquisition offer to OpenAI’s external legal advisor, Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, via email on Monday. However, the law firm has not commented on this matter.
Toberoff disclosed that the bid was submitted in the form of a “detailed four-page letter of intent” regarding the acquisition of OpenAI’s assets. The document was signed by Musk and other investors and addressed to the OpenAI board.
“Whether Sam Altman forwarded or concealed this document from other OpenAI board members is beyond our control,” Toberoff added.
