Hajra Naz
Elon Musk’s lawyer said in a court filing on Wednesday that if the board of the company that created ChatGPT agrees to maintain its charity objective and forego aspirations to become a for-profit company, the billionaire would revoke his $97.4 billion bid for OpenAI’s nonprofit.
The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California received the brief, which argues that Musk’s offer to buy OpenAI’s charity is valid. It further contends that an impartial buyer “must compensate the nonprofit at fair market value for its assets.” The filing states.
“If the nonprofit proceeds with the sale of its assets, a consortium led by Musk has made a genuine offer that would support the charity’s mission,”
“However, if OpenAI, Inc.’s board commits to preserving the nonprofit’s mission and agrees to halt the transition to a for-profit structure, Musk will withdraw his bid.”
This filing marks the latest chapter in an ongoing dispute that escalated on Monday when Musk, his AI company xAI, and a group of investors made an unsolicited $97.4 billion offer to purchase the nonprofit entity that oversees OpenAI.
The proposal was swiftly rejected by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and the company’s board. In response, Andy Nussbaum, legal counsel for OpenAI’s board, dismissed the offer, stating that Musk’s bid “fails to establish a value for OpenAI’s nonprofit” and reaffirming that the nonprofit “is not for sale.”
Musk, one of OpenAI’s original co-founders, filed a lawsuit against the company and Altman last year. He accused them of engaging in anticompetitive behavior, extortion, and other violations.
Before transitioning to a “capped-profit” business model in 2019, OpenAI was founded as a charity. The charity is still as it were shareholder in OpenAI‘s for-profit business beneath this arrangement, and it is in charge of making doubt that its unique constitution is taken after. To become a conventional for-profit company—more precisely, a public benefit corporation—OpenAI is presently going through another reorganization. Musk is attempting to stop this shift with his lawsuit.
Musk’s takeover bid was characterized earlier Wednesday by OpenAI’s legal team as “an improper effort to undermine a competitor.” Additionally, they contended that Musk’s legal position runs counter to his assertion that the company’s benevolent objective would be violated by reorganizing its assets.
