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Elon Musk and a group of co-investors have submitted an offer of nearly $ 100 billion for the non-profit organization which controls Openai, complicating the attempt by general director Sam Altman to convert the start-up into an entity to lucrative goal.
Musk submitted the offer of the Board of Directors of OpenAI on Monday, according to a person with direct knowledge of the case.
Shortly after the Wall Street Journal reported for the first time the unsolicited approach of $ 97.4 billion, Altman said on the social media site X, “no thanks but we will buy Twitter for 9.74 billion Dollars if you wish. ” Musk bought Twitter in 2022 and renamed it X.
Altman is converting Openai into a lucrative goal, removing the company from its roots as a non -profit research organization.
Musk, whose start-up XAI is a direct competitor of Openai, has made several attempts to derail this effort. Last month, Musk’s lawyer, Marc Toberoff, called on lawyers for Delaware and California to force Openai to launch a competitive auction for the non -profit organization, which is at the heart of the ‘business.
Openai, who said that these were not entertaining external offers for the non -profit organization, refused to comment on the offer.
Musk’s offer for the non -profit organization is the last salvo of a long and bitter rivalry between the boss of Tesla and Altman. Former collaborators are now in competition to dominate artificial intelligence, by collecting tens of billions of dollars and by building large data centers. OPENAI plans to develop $ 500 billion in AI infrastructure in the coming years thanks to a project supported by SoftBank called Stargate.
Musk, co-founder of Openai who invested tens of millions of dollars in the emerging company before leaving its board of directors in 2018, said that the conversion betrays the founding mission of the start-up. He launched prosecution against Altman and Openai.
The transition from Openai to a for -profit goal would involve turning the non -profit organization as a distinct entity.
One of the main obstacles to conversion was to establish fair value for the non -profit organization which, under the current structure, controls the company. OPENAI, a private company that is in talks to raise new capital to a pre-money assessment of $ 260 billion, has no obligation to sell.
According to people who experience an assessment of around $ 30 billion for the non -profit entity, Openai had discussed an assessment of around $ 30 billion for the non -profit entity. Musk lawyers argued that the figure should be much higher and called for a competitive tender process.
A higher evaluation would also mean a higher payment for Musk, whose donation to the company in its early years would have returned several times.
