Sam Altman Dismisses Elon Musk’s Bid to Buy OpenAI in Letter to Staff | EUROtoday

Sam Altman is leaving no room for doubt about his views on an Elon Musk-led bid to take management of OpenAI. In a letter to OpenAI employees Monday, the CEO put the phrases “bid” and “deal” in scare quotes and mentioned the startup’s board has no real interest in the provide.

“Our structure exists to ensure that no individual can take control of OpenAI,” Altman wrote, in line with two sources with data of the letter. “Elon runs a competitive AI company, and his actions are not about OpenAI’s mission or values.”

Altman has additionally advised workers that OpenAI’s board, which he sits on, has but to obtain an official provide from Musk and the opposite traders. If and when this occurs, the board plans to reject the bid, in line with those self same sources. Internally, OpenAI workers reacted to the information with a mix of worry and exasperation. Parts of Altman’s letter had been earlier reported by The Information.

A gaggle of traders led by Musk surprised the tech trade on Monday once they introduced an unsolicited provide to purchase all of OpenAI’s property to the tune of $97.4 billion. Musk’s competing AI firm, xAI, is backing the bid, as is Valor Equity Partners, a personal fairness agency run by one in every of Musk’s closest advisers, Antonio Gracias. Gracias helped advise Musk on his deal to amass Twitter in 2022 and has been concerned along with his efforts on the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

“It’s time for OpenAI to return to the open-source, safety-focused force for good it once was,” Musk mentioned in an announcement despatched to WIRED via his lawyer Marc Toberoff. “We will make sure that happens.”

Musk has sued OpenAI a number of occasions for, amongst different issues, allegedly violating its authentic commitments as a nonprofit by transitioning to grow to be a for-profit firm. In addition to preventing again in court docket, OpenAI printed a sequence of emails claiming that Musk knew OpenAI would want to grow to be for-profit in an effort to pursue synthetic normal intelligence—and actually, tried to merge the corporate with Tesla.

The struggle between Musk and Altman places a highlight on OpenAI board chair Bret Taylor, who additionally ran Twitter’s board of administrators throughout Elon Musk’s acquisition of the corporate. That bid was, in concept, extra easy. Since Twitter was a public company, the board had a transparent fiduciary obligation to maximise returns. Musk tried to again out of the acquisition, however his advisers finally satisfied him that wasn’t going to be potential, and he closed on the unique phrases. Taylor didn’t reply to a request for remark from WIRED.

OpenAI’s construction is extra sophisticated. Today, the corporate is a nonprofit with a for-profit subsidiary, but it surely’s within the means of changing the for-profit arm right into a public profit company, which requires OpenAI to call a value for its property. OpenAI is at present valued at $157 billion based mostly on its newest funding spherical. The firm is in talks with SoftBank about main a $40 billion funding, which might deliver the corporate’s valuation as much as $300 billion.