> Musk is offering to buy the forprofit from the nonprofit
But that's not what the article says. It specifically says he's offering "to buy the nonprofit that controls OpenAI", not the for-profit that it owns. That's why I'm confused.
I think the journalist that originally reported the story for the Wall Street Journal, that got sent the press release, is just misinformed about nonprofits and that has been parroted by every downstream outlet. It’s a pattern I’ve noticed a lot with reporting on OpenAI over the last year (and tons in HN comments any time the topic comes up).
Either that or Musk has a really bad lawyer or this is a publicity stunt. There is a process to turn a nonprofit back into a forprofit but it’s very complicated, probably requires dissolution of the entity altogether, would almost certainly involve California regulators, and might require that the nonprofit divest its assets to a different nonprofit (which would defeat the purpose since OpenAI Global likely has all the IP).
But that's not what the article says. It specifically says he's offering "to buy the nonprofit that controls OpenAI", not the for-profit that it owns. That's why I'm confused.