Elon Musk has claimed that he declined the offer to have shares in OpenAI at "various points" as it seemed "unethical/illegal to accept them," according to Business Insider.

Musk, who co-founded the AI company with Sam Altman in 2015, pledged $1 billion to the collaborative enterprise.

Elon Musk Claims He Was Offered OpenAI Shares

Responding to an X user's question regarding his founding donation, Elon Musk added that it was unclear to him how the structure of OpenAI was legal, leading him to decline the shares offered to him. 

However, the tech billionaire did not specify when the offer was made, how many, or by whom. Musk stepped down from OpenAI's board in 2018, citing the potential for future conflicts of interest with Tesla's AI-focused endeavors.

However, Musk eventually said disagreements with the OpenAI team prompted his departure. 

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Elon Musk Continues to be Critical of OpenAI

Criticism from Elon Musk towards OpenAI continues to persist, particularly concerning the company's multibillion-dollar deal with tech giant Microsoft. 

Musk asserted last year that OpenAI had shifted its focus towards maximizing profits, a departure from his intention. OpenAI, now valued at over $80 billion, was created as a nonprofit focused on developing AI that would "benefit humanity as a whole."

OpenAI has recently finalized a deal that values it at $80 billion or more. Under the deal, OpenAI would sell existing shares in a so-called tender offer led by venture firm Thrive Capital, and employees were allowed to cash out their company's shares rather than a traditional funding round that would raise money for the business. 

Last year, Musk launched his own AI venture called xAI and released a chatbot named Grok that competes with OpenAI's chatbot ChatGPT.

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