Musk offers to withdraw $97.4B OpenAI bid if board remains nonprofit: Report

Billionaire Elon Musk signaled his willingness to withdraw his $97.4 billion bid for OpenAI's controlling nonprofit entity if its board ceases its transition to a for-profit model, according to a report.

The Wall Street Journal, citing Musk's legal team, reported that in a court filing the billionaire would drop his takeover attempt if OpenAI'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."

The bid, launched Monday by Musk and a consortium, was swiftly rejected by OpenAI Chief Executive Sam Altman. "No thank you but we will buy Twitter for $9.74 billion if you want," Altman wrote on X, referring to the social media platform owned by Musk.

Musk and Altman, who co-founded OpenAI in 2015 as a nonprofit, are engaged in legal battles about the organization's direction. Musk has criticized OpenAI's commercialization, arguing it deviates from its original open-source and safety-focused purpose.

"It's time for OpenAI to return to the open-source, safety-focused force for good it once was," Musk said in a statement via his lawyer. "We will make sure that happens."

OpenAI has not commented.