Elon Musk sets condition to withdraw $97.4 billion OpenAI bid 

This condition was given in a court filing submitted by the billionaire’s lawyers on Wednesday.

“If the OpenAI board is prepared to preserve the charity’s mission and stipulate to take the ‘for sale’ sign off its assets by halting its conversion, Musk will withdraw the bid,” the filing stated. 

However, if OpenAI proceeds with its for-profit plans, the filing argued that the non-profit must be compensated “by what an arms-length buyer will pay for its assets.”  

Musk’s offer was described as a “serious bid” aimed at furthering the charity’s mission.

OpenAI was originally established in 2015 as a non-profit organization by Musk and Sam Altman, the current CEO of OpenAI.

Earlier this week, a consortium led by Musk made an offer to acquire the non-profit arm in a bid to halt the restructuring.

According to the reports, xAI could merge with OpenAI if the deal proceeds.

Other backers of the proposal include Valor Equity Partners, Baron Capital, Atreides Management, Vy Capital, Joe Lonsdale’s 8VC, and Ari Emanuel through his investment fund. Marc Toberoff, a lawyer representing the investor group, confirmed the bid in a statement but declined further comment.

However, Altman told Reuters on Tuesday that the non-profit is “not for sale.”

OpenAI has also countered Musk’s bid, stating that it contradicts his legal argument against the privatization of the organization’s assets.

Musk and Altman have been at odds over OpenAI’s trajectory since its founding. Musk has accused the company of abandoning its original mission as a nonprofit focused on benefiting humanity through open-source and safety-driven AI development.