OpenAI has responded to Elon Musk’s bid to buy the company for $97,4-billion with a firm no.
According to chairman Bret Taylor, the artificial intelligence (AI) company is not for sale.
Early last week Elon Musk, together with a group of investors, made an unsolicited bid to buy acquire OpenAI’s assets.
OpenAI was formed as a non-profit organisation by Musk, chief executive Sam Altman and others in 2015, with the aim of making its technology freely available. When the founders split three years later, Altman added a for-profit company to enable it to raise funds.
The consortium making the bid is made up of Musk’s AI company Xai, Vy Capital, broker Ari Emanual and a number of other investors who are so far unknown.
OpenAI is currently in a new, $40-billion, funding deal with SoftBank that would value the company at $300-billion.
Taylor said in a statement: “OpenAI is not for sale, and the board has unanimously rejected Mr Musk’s latest attempt to disrupt his competition.”