Elon Musk revives lawsuit against OpenAI, accuses co-founders of ‘Shakespearean’ betrayal
Elon Musk filed a new lawsuit against OpenAI and co-founders Sam Altman and Greg Brockman on Monday – just weeks after he dropped a similar lawsuit against the firm behind ChatGPT.
The case filed in California by Musk – who co-founded OpenAI in 2015 but later exited its board due to disagreements over its direction – describes his dispute with Altman and others as a “textbook tale of altruism versus greed.”
Musk’s lawyers allege OpenAI and its leaders “intentionally courted and deceived” him into bankrolling the startup to the tune of more than $44 million in its early years.
The suit claims Altman and his allies said they would develop advanced AI for the benefit of mankind – only to ditch that mission in order to enrich itself and key investor Microsoft.
“After Musk lent his name to the venture, invested significant time, tens of millions of dollars in seed capital, and recruited top AI scientists for OpenAI Inc., Musk and the non-profit’s namesake objective were betrayed by Altman and his accomplices,” the lawsuit says.
“The perfidy and deceit are of Shakespearean proportions.”
The lawsuit accuses OpenAI, Altman and Brockman of fraud and breach of contract. Musk is seeking various forms of relief, including damages, disgorgement of profits related to his investment and a court ruling that blocks OpenAI’s licensing agreement with Microsoft — which has committed some $13 billion to the firm.
The Tesla and X boss’s legal team also requested a jury trial.
The Post has reached out to OpenAI and Microsoft for comment on the suit.
In a previous blog post responding to Musk’s initial lawsuit, OpenAI rejected Musk’s allegations and said it would move to dismiss the claims.
“As we discussed a for-profit structure in order to further the mission, Elon wanted us to merge with Tesla or he wanted full control,” the blog post said. “Elon left OpenAI, saying there needed to be a relevant competitor to Google/DeepMind and that he was going to do it himself.”
Musk filed a similar lawsuit against OpenAI and its leaders last March, but withdrew the action a few months later shortly before a judge was set to decide whether it should be allowed to proceed.
The billionaire has launched his own firm xAI – a direct competitor to OpenAI that raised $6 billion at a post-money valuation of $24 billion in May.
