The board of directors of OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, officially rejected the acquisition proposal from Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla.
Brett Taylor, chair of the OpenAI board, stated in a statement on the 14th (local time) that “OpenAI is not for sale, and the board unanimously rejected Musk's attempt to hinder competitors.”
Musk co-founded OpenAI with Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, 10 years ago but departed, leading to ongoing tensions between them. Recently, Musk formed a consortium with investment funds and others to acquire OpenAI's assets, proposing an equity sale to the OpenAI side.
In his acquisition proposal, Musk argued that ‘OpenAI should return to being a positive influence focused on open-source and safety, as it was before.’
In response, Altman pointed out that “Musk's acquisition proposal is nonsense” and “another scheme to shake us.”