Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, at Station F, is seen through glass, during an event on the sidelines of the Artificial Intelligence Action Summit in Paris, France, Feb. 11, 2025.
Aurelien Morissard | Via Reuters
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told employees in a memo Tuesday that the company hasn’t received “anything official” from Elon Musk regarding a potential purchase of the artificial intelligence startup.
“Our structure exists to ensure that no individual can take control of OpenAI,” Altman wrote in the memo, which was obtained by CNBC. “Elon runs a competitive AI company, and his actions are not about OpenAI’s mission or values. They are tactics aimed at weakening us because we’re making great progress.”
The note comes a day after news surfaced that Musk is leading a group of investors in trying to buy control of OpenAI for $97.4 billion. The offer is for the nonprofit that oversees the AI startup behind ChatGPT, and Musk’s attorney Marc Toberoff said he submitted it Monday.
“It’s time for OpenAI to return to the open-source, safety-focused force for good it once was,” Toberoff told CNBC in a statement.
Altman and Musk are in the midst of a heated legal and public relations battle over the future of OpenAI. They were two of the co-founders of OpenAI in 2015, establishing the entity as a nonprofit focused on AI research. Musk is suing OpenAI, accusing it of antitrust violations, and trying to prevent it from converting into a for-profit corporation.
OpenAI has emerged as a giant in generative AI, launching ChatGPT in 2022 and setting off a wave of investment in new tools and infrastructure for next-generation AI products and services. SoftBank is close to finalizing a $40 billion investment in OpenAI at a $260 billion valuation, sources told CNBC’s David Faber on Friday. Microsoft has been the biggest backer to date.
The consortium of investors supposedly joining Musk includes his startup xAI, and longtime investors in his other businesses, including Baron Capital Group, Valor, Atreides, Vy Capital, Joe Lonsdale’s 8VC, and an investment vehicle led by Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel.
A source close to Musk who asked not to be named in order to speak candidly on the matter noted that everyone in the group is a Musk loyalist, and the consortium doesn’t include any of the traditional Silicon Valley investors that have backed prior Musk ventures.
Altman reminded employees Tuesday that “Elon has a history of making claims that don’t hold up,” highlighting his “exaggerated” donations to OpenAI and shifting narratives about whether he supported OpenAI becoming a for-profit entity.
“The best thing we can do is move forward with dedication and resilience,” Altman wrote.
If and when the OpenAI board does receive a formal bid, it has a legal obligation to review it, according to Ellen Aprill, senior scholar in residence at the University of California, Los Angeles.
“The board would need to consider a bid even if they didn’t invite it,” Aprill told CNBC. “A non-profit can sell its assets, but needs to make sure it’s getting fair value.”
As a nonprofit, the board doesn’t serve shareholders and therefore doesn’t have a traditional fiduciary duty. Rather, its duty is for the public benefit, which is determined by attorneys general of the states where it operates.
Later on Tuesday, Toberoff said in a statement that he emailed the bid for OpenAI on behalf of the Musk-led consortium a day earlier to OpenAI’s outside counsel William Savitt and Sarah Eddy “for transmission to their client.” Toberoff said the bid was “in the form of a detailed four-page letter” and was addressed to OpenAI’s board.
“Whether Sam Altman chose to provide or withhold this from OpenAI’s other Board members is outside of our control,” he wrote.
An OpenAI spokesperson declined to comment.
— CNBC’s Ari Levy and Steve Kovach contributed to this report.
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