OpenAI rejects Musk’s takeover offer, says it was ‘not a bid at all’

OpenAI has officially rejected Elon Musk’s proposal to buy the artificial intelligence startup’s nonprofit parent for $97.4 billion.

In a short letter to Musk’s lawyer on Friday, OpenAI’s attorney, William Savitt, said the OpenAI board had reviewed the proposal and determined that the billionaire’s “much-publicized ‘bid’ is in fact not a bid at all.”

The “proposal, even as first presented, is not in the best interest of OAI’s mission and is rejected,” Savitt wrote to Marc Toberoff. “The decision of the OAI board on this matter is unanimous.”

OpenAI Chairman Bret Taylor said in a statement that the company “is not for sale.”

“Any potential reorganization of OpenAI will strengthen our nonprofit and its mission to ensure AGI benefits all of humanity,” he wrote, referring to artificial general intelligence.

Earlier this week, Toberoff disclosed that Musk was leading a group of investors in offering to buy control of OpenAI for $97.4 billion. The offer was for the nonprofit that oversees the developer of ChatGPT. Toberoff said he submitted the offer on Monday.

“It’s time for OpenAI to return to the open-source, safety-focused force for good it once was,” Toberoff wrote at the time.

In a response on X, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman wrote, “no thank you but we will buy twitter for $9.74 billion if you want.” Musk is the owner of X, formerly Twitter.

Musk then replied to Atlman on X, with “swindler,” and in a reply to a different user, called him “Scam Altman.“

This story is developing. Please check back for updates.