OpenAI board of directors rejects purchase offer from Elon Musk

The president of the Board of Directors of Openai said Friday that he unanimously rejected an offer from Elon Musk to buy the artificial intelligence company for 97.4 billion dollars.

«Openai is not on sale, and the Board has unanimously rejected the last attempt of Mr. Musk to disturb his competence,» said Bret Taylor in a statement published in X.

«Any possible OpenAI reorganization will strengthen our non -profit organization and its mission to ensure that Agi (general artificial intelligence) benefits all humanity,» he added.

OpenAi works with a hybrid structure, a non -profit and a subsidiary part that generates money. However, the firm wants to evolve a forklift model, which its chief executive Sam Altman considers crucial for its development.

This change exacerbated tensions with Musk, one of the 11 founders of Openai in 2015 that provided the initial financing of 45 million dollars before leaving the company three years later.

Musk, also with an artificial intelligence firm, presented on Wednesday judicial documents in which he said he would withdraw the offer of purchase of OpenAI if the board of directors maintained its non -profit business model.

The tensions between Musk and Altman come from afar, but they sharpened after Openai launched their chatgpt conversational robot and aroused a worldwide fervor for this technology.

At the time of Musk’s march, Openai alleged «a possible conflict in the future for Elon … as Tesla continues to focus more on AI.» Then, at the beginning of 2023, the Tesla chief created his own company in this sector, XAI.

The huge design, training and implementation costs of AI models have forced OpenAi to look for a new corporate structure that gives capital investors and provides more stable governance.

The transition to a profit structure requires the approval of the authorities of California and Delaware.

Current investors prefer a lower assessment to maximize their participation in the new company.

Musk’s offer, which values ​​Openai’s non -profit organization in 97.4 billion dollars (about 30,000 million dollars above the level of current negotiations, according to The Information), seems designed to interrupt the fundraising efforts of the company.

The director of Global Affairs of OpenAI, Chris Lehane, has said that Musk’s offer comes from a competitor «who has had difficulty staying updated with technology and competes with us in the market.»

AFP