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

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 workers 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 construction exists to make sure that no particular person can take management of OpenAI,” Altman wrote, in line with two sources with data of the letter. “Elon runs a aggressive AI firm, and his actions aren’t about OpenAI’s mission or values.”

Altman has additionally instructed staff 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 staff reacted to the information with a combination of concern and exasperation. Components of Altman’s letter have been earlier reported by The Info.

A bunch of traders led by Musk surprised the tech business on Monday once they announced an unsolicited provide to purchase all of OpenAI’s belongings to the tune of $97.4 billion. Musk’s competing AI firm, xAI, is backing the bid, as is Valor Fairness Companions, a personal fairness agency run by certainly one 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 Division of Authorities Effectivity (DOGE).

“It’s time for OpenAI to return to the open-source, safety-focused drive for good it as soon as was,” Musk mentioned in a press release despatched to WIRED by way of his lawyer Marc Toberoff. “We’ll make it possible for occurs.”

Musk has sued OpenAI a number of instances for, amongst different issues, allegedly violating its authentic commitments as a nonprofit by transitioning to develop into a for-profit firm. Along with preventing again in courtroom, OpenAI printed a series of emails claiming that Musk knew OpenAI would want to develop into for-profit to be able to pursue synthetic common intelligence—and actually, tried to merge the corporate with Tesla.

The battle 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 principle, extra easy. Since Twitter was a public company, the board had a transparent fiduciary obligation to maximise returns. Musk tried to back out of the acquisition, however his advisers in the end 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. In the present day, the corporate is a nonprofit with a for-profit subsidiary, nevertheless it’s within the technique of changing the for-profit arm right into a public benefit corporation, which requires OpenAI to call a worth for its belongings. OpenAI is at the moment valued at $157 billion based mostly on its newest funding spherical. The corporate is in talks with SoftBank about main a $40 billion funding, which might convey the corporate’s valuation as much as $300 billion.