Sam Altman is leaving no room for doubt about his views on an Elon Musk-led bid to take management of OpenAI. In a letter to OpenAI workers Monday, the CEO put the phrases “bid” and “deal” in scare quotes and stated the startup’s board has no real interest in the supply.

“Our construction exists to make sure that no particular person can take management of OpenAI,” Altman wrote, based on two sources with information of the letter. “Elon runs a aggressive AI firm, and his actions will not be about OpenAI’s mission or values.”

Altman has additionally informed staff that OpenAI’s board, which he sits on, has but to obtain an official supply from Musk and the opposite buyers. If and when this occurs, the board plans to reject the bid, based on those self same sources. Internally, OpenAI staff reacted to the information with a mix of concern and exasperation. Elements of Altman’s letter have been earlier reported by The Info.

A gaggle of buyers led by Musk shocked the tech business on Monday after they announced an unsolicited supply to purchase all of OpenAI’s property to the tune of $97.4 billion. Musk’s competing AI firm, xAI, is backing the bid, as is Valor Fairness Companions, a personal fairness agency run by one in every of Musk’s closest advisers, Antonio Gracias. Gracias helped advise Musk on his deal to accumulate Twitter in 2022 and has been concerned together with his efforts on the Division of Authorities Effectivity (DOGE).

“It’s time for OpenAI to return to the open-source, safety-focused drive for good it as soon as was,” Musk stated in a press release despatched to WIRED by way of his lawyer Marc Toberoff. “We are going to be sure that occurs.”

Musk has sued OpenAI a number of occasions for, amongst different issues, allegedly violating its authentic commitments as a nonprofit by transitioning to turn into a for-profit firm. Along with combating again in courtroom, OpenAI revealed a series of emails claiming that Musk knew OpenAI would want to turn into for-profit so as to pursue synthetic common intelligence—and actually, tried to merge the corporate with Tesla.

The battle between Musk and Altman places a highlight on OpenAI board chair Bret Taylor, who additionally ran Twitter’s board of administrators throughout Elon Musk’s acquisition of the corporate. That bid was, in concept, extra easy. Since Twitter was a public company, the board had a transparent fiduciary responsibility to maximise returns. Musk tried to back out of the acquisition, however his advisers finally satisfied him that wasn’t going to be doable, and he closed on the unique phrases. Taylor didn’t reply to a request for remark from WIRED.

OpenAI’s construction is extra sophisticated. In the present day, the corporate is a nonprofit with a for-profit subsidiary, but it surely’s within the strategy of changing the for-profit arm right into a public benefit corporation, which requires OpenAI to call a worth for its property. OpenAI is presently valued at $157 billion based mostly on its newest funding spherical. The corporate is in talks with SoftBank about main a $40 billion funding, which might carry the corporate’s valuation as much as $300 billion.