Musk’s consortium, which includes VCs like Joe Lonsdale’s 8VC and SpaceX investor Vy Capital, is offering exactly $97.375 billion to buy out OpenAI, and says in the letter 100% of the purchase price “would be paid in cash.”

In a court filing, Mr. Musk said he and other investors would pull their $97.4 billion bid if OpenAI withdrew its plan to change its structure.

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