Elon Musk-led group proposes buying ChatGPT-maker OpenAI
OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman quickly rejected the deal.
A group of investors led by Elon Musk has said it is offering more than 97 billion dollars (£78.3 billion) to buy OpenAI, escalating a legal dispute with the artificial intelligence company that Mr Musk helped found.
Mr Musk and his own AI start-up, xAI, and a consortium of investment firms say they want to buy the ChatGPT-maker and revert it back to its original charitable mission as a non-profit research lab, according to Musk lawyer Marc Toberoff.
OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman quickly rejected the deal on Mr Musk’s social media platform X, saying “no thank you but we will buy twitter for $9.74 billion if you want”.
Mr Musk bought Twitter, now called X, for 44 billion dollars in 2022.
Mr Musk, an early OpenAI investor and board member, sued the artificial intelligence company last year, first in a California state court and later in federal court, alleging it had betrayed its founding aims as a non-profit research lab benefiting the public good.
Mr Musk had invested about 45 million dollars (£36 million) in the start-up from its founding until 2018, Mr Toberoff said in court last week.
Mr Musk and OpenAI lawyers faced off in a California federal court last week as a judge weighed up Mr Musk’s request for a court order that would block the ChatGPT-maker from converting itself to a for-profit company.
US district judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers has not yet ruled on Mr Musk’s request but in court said it was a “stretch” for Mr Musk to claim he will be irreparably harmed if she does not intervene to stop OpenAI from moving forward with its planned transition towards becoming a for-profit corporation.
But the judge also raised concerns about OpenAI and its relationship with business partner Microsoft and said she would not stop the case from moving to trial as soon as next year so a jury can decide.
“It is plausible that what Mr Musk is saying is true. We’ll find out. He’ll sit on the stand,” she said.
Along with Mr Musk and xAI, others backing the bid include Baron Capital Group, Valor Management, Atreides Management, Vy Fund and Eight Partners VC.
Mr Toberoff said in a statement that if Mr Altman and OpenAI’s current board “are intent on becoming a fully for-profit corporation, it is vital that the charity be fairly compensated for what its leadership is taking away from it: control over the most transformative technology of our time”.
Mr Toberoff added that Mr Musk, as an OpenAI co-founder and successful tech leader, “is the person best positioned to protect and grow OpenAI’s technology”.
