- Sam Altman wants to use Elon Musk’s OpenAI takeover bid against him in court.
- Altman asked the judge in the tech bros’ yearlong court battle to look at the bid letter.
- Altman said it shows Musk is contradicting himself when he fights OpenAI’s efforts to go for-profit.
Sam Altman, in a court filing late Wednesday, asked a federal judge to take a look at the February 10 letter Elon Musk sent OpenAI in a bid to take over the company for $97.5 billion.
The request, filed with a federal judge in California, is Altman’s latest move in fighting Musk’s yearlong lawsuit seeking to halt OpenAI’s transition into a fully for-profit entity.
Altman argues the letter is relevant to that battle. His new filing asks US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers to let him use it to show that Musk is contradicting himself when he fights OpenAI’s efforts to go for-profit.
He’s asking Gonzalez Rogers to add the letter to everything he’s already filed in fighting Musk’s request that the judge immediately halt that transition.
Musk’s February takeover bid letter is attached as an exhibit to Wednesday night’s filing.
In Wednesday night’s filing, Altman’s attorney told the judge that the letter was sent by a group of private investors led by Musk in his capacity as xAI’s CEO, including Antonio Gracias and Gavin Baker.
The letter “purports to make an unsolicited bid” to acquire all OpenAI assets, Altman’s attorney, Jordan Eth, wrote.
“Musk’s purported takeover bid cannot be reconciled with the charitable trust claim he is advancing in this Court, or the injunction he is seeking on the back of that claim,” Eth wrote the judge.
Eth said the letter shows Musk has contradicted himself. In Musk v Altman, the lawyer wrote, Musk is seeking an injunction barring any conversion of OpenAI into a for-profit enterprise.
“But out of court, those constraints evidently do not apply, so long as Musk and his allies are the buyers,” Eth wrote. “Musk would have OpenAI, Inc. transfer all of its assets to him, for his economic benefit and that of his competing AI business and hand-picked private investors.”
Altman is fighting hard in recent days against Musk’s request that the judge immediately halt what the lawsuit alleges is OpenAI’s unlawful quashing of competition and its betrayal of its nonprofit origins.
Earlier Wednesday, Altman’s attorney accused Musk of having “no facts” to back his claims.
Altman has met Musk’s takeover bid with a resounding no thank you, saying OpenAI is “not for sale.”
Also Wednesday, Musk said in a separate court filing that he’ll drop the $97.4 billion OpenAI bid if it remains a nonprofit.
