Elon Musk Sues OpenAI

Elon Musk has sued Open AI.

In a recent federal court filing, Musk asked the court to stop OpenAI from converting into a fully for-profit business.

Attorneys representing Musk, xAI, and a former OpenAI board member filed a preliminary injunction on Friday afternoon.

The injunction will also prevent OpenAI from requiring its investors not to invest in AI startup competitors such as xAI.

Musk invested nearly $50 million in OpenAI in its early days.

Finally — Elon Musk asks court to block OpenAI from converting to a for-profit. One of the greatest injustices to initial funders who were lead to believe it will be a non-profit org. pic.twitter.com/8SPJrn5Dls

— Dr. Strange (Parody) (@Submission2T) December 1, 2024

Elon Musk Sues OpenAI.

They F'd Around.

Now, They Find Out. pic.twitter.com/d77cTYzLsG

— stevenmarkryan (@stevenmarkryan) March 1, 2024

Per CNBC:

Elon Musk is asking a federal court to stop OpenAI from converting into a fully for-profit business.

Attorneys representing Musk, his AI startup xAI, and former OpenAI board member Shivon Zilis filed for a preliminary injunction against OpenAI on Friday. The injunction would also stop OpenAI from allegedly requiring its investors to refrain from funding competitors, including xAI and others.

The latest court filings represent an escalation in the legal feud between Musk, OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman, as well as other long-involved parties and backers including tech investor Reid Hoffman and Microsoft.

Musk had originally sued OpenAI in March 2024 in a San Francisco state court, before withdrawing that complaint and refiling several months later in federal court. Attorneys for Musk in the federal suit, led by Marc Toberoff in Los Angeles, argued in their complaint that OpenAI has violated federal racketeering, or RICO, laws.

In mid-November, they expanded their complaint to include allegations that Microsoft and OpenAI had violated antitrust laws when the Chat GPT-maker allegedly asked investors to agree to not invest in rival companies, including Musk’s newest startup, xAI.

Elon Musk emails OpenAI cofounders

September 20, 2017 pic.twitter.com/bUr61qOnQY

— Internal Tech Emails (@TechEmails) November 15, 2024

Here’s what Tech Times reported:

Elon Musk made a significant follow-up to their case via the latest filing by his legal team which is now seeking an injunction against OpenAI’s upcoming transformation into a for-profit company. Alongside this new filing, Musk’s team also named the likes of OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman and President Greg Brockman, together with Dee Templeton, Microsoft’s Vice President of Technology & Research Partnerships and Operation; and LinkedIn’s Reid Hoffman as defendants.

This latest motion from Musk is now looking to prevent OpenAI from adopting a for-profit business model which means that it can align itself to a single corporation for backing and funding their developments.

Musk is known for arguing against this new governance structure that is set to be changed over at OpenAI, alleging that this is an anticompetitive practice from both OpenAI and Microsoft that could undermine its rivals, particularly xAI.

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