'OpenAI will not be sold' - Board reprimanded Elon Musk, rejected the offer of $ 97.4 billion

The board of directors of parent entity OpenAI rejected the $97.4 billion bid by billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk-led group, indicating that the startup does not sell and no offer to sell it in the future shall ever be accepted. Allow us to tell you that billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk has also co-founded OpenAI. Musk co-founded it ten years ago alongside OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman. But since OpenAI has been established as a non-profit entity, Musk has distanced himself from it.

On behalf of the board, OpenAI chairman Bret Taylor was quoted as saying on X, "OpenAI is not for sale and the board has unanimously rejected Musk's new attempt to disrupt its competitors. Any potential reorganization of OpenAI will strengthen our nonprofit organization and its mission to ensure humanity benefits from AGI."

Musk's lawyer Marc Toberoff responded in a statement that OpenAI was putting control of the profit-making venture up for sale and said the move would "enrich some of its board members rather than charity."

The OpenAI board outlined plans to reform its structure in late December, saying it would make it a public benefit company, making it easier for the company to raise more capital than imagined. This would also remove restrictions imposed on startups due to being a nonprofit company.

A few days ago, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman had rejected Elon Musk's offer to buy the company. On the contrary, he offered Musk to buy X (earlier Twitter). Responding to Musk, Sam said, "If you want, we can definitely buy Twitter for $9.7 billion." It is worth noting that Elon Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion in the year 2022 and later changed the name of Twitter to X.

In the year 2015, Elon Musk and Sam Altman started OpenAI together. Later, due to a dispute between the two over leadership, Musk left the startup. Musk resigned from the board of OpenAI in the year 2018. Musk also filed a lawsuit against the company last year. Musk alleges that the company was started as a non-profit research lab for the welfare of the people, but the company has deviated from its purpose. Elon Musk had invested about $45 million in OpenAI in the initial phase.