By Anna Tong(Reuters) – The enigmatic move made by billionaire Elon Musk to acquire OpenAI, a company aiming to transition into a for-profit entity, has ignited a clash with his own legal battle disputing the notion that assets of the ChatGPT maker should be used for personal profit, OpenAI highlighted in a letter submitted to a federal court on Wednesday. In a surprising turn of events, a group of investors spearheaded by Elon Musk put forth a staggering $97.4 billion offer to purchase the assets of OpenAI, a renowned nonprofit organization, marking yet another bold move by the world’s wealthiest individual against the backdrop of the artificial intelligence landscape. Musk initiated legal action against OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman and other key figures back in August, seeking an injunction from a U.S. district judge to halt OpenAI’s intended shift to a for-profit model. OpenAI, in its correspondence, called out Musk for seemingly contradicting himself by attempting to undermine a competitor through what they deemed an inappropriate bid. Musk’s legal filings stipulate that OpenAI’s assets must remain under the purview of a charitable trust and should not be transferred for personal gain, a stance starkly at odds with his proposed acquisition plan seeking to transfer all of OpenAI’s assets to himself and his group of private investors, as per OpenAI’s assertions. Requests for comment from Musk’s representatives went unanswered. Musk, who co-founded OpenAI with Altman in 2015 as a nonprofit venture but later departed before the surge in popularity of ChatGPT towards the end of 2022, went on to establish a rival AI startup called xAI in 2023. OpenAI has expressed its desire to transition into a for-profit entity in order to access the necessary funding for the advancement of cutting-edge AI models. (Reporting by Anna Tong in San Francisco; Editing by Christopher Cushing)
