Elon Musk has stated he will withdraw his $97.4 billion offer to buy the non-profit behind OpenAI, but only it drops its plan to convert into a for-profit operation.

“If OpenAI Inc.’s 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,” lawyers for the billionaire said in a filing to a California court on Wednesday, the Associated Press reported.

“Otherwise, the charity must be compensated by what an arms-length buyer will pay for its assets,” the lawyers reportedly stated.

OpenAI is currently controlled by a non-profit board bound to its original mission of safely building better-than-human AI for public benefit. But last year it unveiled plans to formally change its corporate structure to a ‘for profit’ organisation.

Trolling Musk

Meanwhile it should be noted that Elon Musk’s competitor AI firm, xAI, filed in December 2023 to be a ‘for profit benefit’ corporation in Nevada. This allows xAI apparently to prioritise societal and environmental impact alongside, or even over, shareholder returns.

Earlier this week Elon Musk and a group of investors – said to include Baron Capital Group, Valor Management, Atreides Management, Vy Fund, Emanuel Capital Management and Eight Partners VC – had offered about $97.4 billion to buy the non-profit behind OpenAI.

But this offer was firmly rejected by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, when he was leaving the AI Summit in Paris, who called the offer “ridiculous”, and that it was “another one of his (Musk’s) tactics to mess with us,” and he had not paid any attention to it, as it “doesn’t matter.”

And to further highlight his disdain for Musk’s offer, Sam Altman also publicly fired back using Musk’s own platform X (formerly Twitter), with a post that heavily trolled Musk’s purchase of Twitter.

“no thank you but we will buy twitter for $9.74 billion if you want,” Altman had tweeted, referring to X’s old name (Twitter).

Altman’s reply was also a pointed reference to the stunning collapse of X’s value from the $44 billion purchase price Musk had paid.

“I feel sorry for him”

Sam Altman went even further to dismiss Musk in an interview with Bloomberg TV at the Paris AI Action Summit on Tuesday.

“Elon tries all sorts of things for a long time,” said Altman. “This is the latest – you know, this week’s episode. I think he’s probably just trying to slow us down.”

“I wish he would just compete by building a better product (ouch), but I think there’s been a lot of tactics,” Altman said in the interview. “Many, many lawsuits, all sorts of other crazy stuff, now this. And we’ll try to just put our head down and keep working.”

Altman was asked whether Musk is approaching his strategy to combat OpenAI from a position of insecurity. Altman agreed and took the opportunity to further belittled Musk.

“Probably his whole life is from a position of insecurity. I feel for the guy,” Altman said. “I don’t think he’s, like, a happy person. I do feel for him.”

Altman also noted he isn’t concerned that Musk has a new elevated position in President Donald Trump’s White House, but acknowledged perhaps he should be.

“Maybe I should, but not particularly,” Altman said. “I try to just wake up and think about like, how we’re going to make our technology better.”

Bad blood

The bad blood between Musk and Altman is clear.

Elon Musk had sued OpenAI in March 2024 for breach of contract, alleging the firm was no longer following its original non-profit principles.

OpenAI then issued a very public and point by point rebuttal of Musk’s allegations, by directly comparing them to Musk’s own words within his own emails.

Musk abruptly withdrew his original lawsuit without explanation in June, a day before a judge was due to rule on OpenAI’s request for it to be dismissed.

But in August 2024 Musk filed a “more forceful” lawsuit, alleging that that OpenAI and its co-founders Sam Altman and Greg Brockman had gone against the company’s founding principles by prioritising commercial interests over the public good.

In December 2024 Elon Musk asked a federal court for an injunction to stop OpenAI from converting into a full for-profit business.

Lawyers for OpenAI and Musk last week faced off in a California federal court as a judge considered Musk’s request for a court order that would block OpenAI from converting itself to a for-profit company.

According to the AP, US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers hasn’t yet ruled on Musk’s request but in the courtroom said it was a “stretch” for Musk to claim he will be irreparably harmed if she doesn’t intervene to stop OpenAI from moving forward with its planned transition.

OpenAI was co-founded by Sam Altman and Greg Brockman in 2015, but Elon Musk was an early investor (to the tune of $48 million), and Musk sought to take over the running of OpenAI before he resigned from the board in 2018.