OpenAI’s board has yet to receive a formal takeover bid from Elon Musk’s consortium, despite claims from the billionaire’s lawyer that the offer was sent to OpenAI’s external counsel.
A day after Musk publicly announced a $97.4 billion bid to acquire the nonprofit overseeing OpenAI, confusion persists over whether the proposal was officially submitted.
A source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Tuesday that OpenAI’s board has not received Musk’s offer, contradicting statements from his attorney, Marc Toberoff. Toberoff claimed he emailed a detailed four-page Letter of Intent to OpenAI’s legal representatives at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz on Monday. However, the law firm has not responded to inquiries.
Musk’s lawyer suggested that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman may have withheld the offer from the board. Altman, however, dismissed the bid as “ridiculous,” reaffirming that OpenAI is not for sale and calling Musk’s move an attempt to disrupt the company.
In an internal message to OpenAI employees, Altman stated that although the board had not formally reviewed the proposal, it intended to reject it to uphold OpenAI’s mission.
Musk co-founded OpenAI with Altman in 2015 but departed over disagreements regarding the company’s direction. He later launched a rival AI startup, xAI, in 2023.
Currently, OpenAI is in the process of raising $40 billion as it transitions from a nonprofit to a for-profit entity to secure funding for AI advancements.
