Elon Musk asks a federal judge to block Sam Altman's OpenAI from completing plans to become a commercial entity, claiming it would cause “irreparable harm” to the public did.
In a filing late Friday in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, Musk accused Altman of violating antitrust laws through the collaboration between OpenAI and Microsoft, which pumped billions into the ChatGPT maker.
“Plaintiffs and the public need to pause,” the filing says. “OpenAI's journey from nonprofit to for-profit behemoth is itself fraught with anti-competitive conduct, flagrant violations of its philanthropic mission, and rampant self-dealing.”
“Microsoft and Altman cannot roam the market like Frankenstein, piecing together corporate structures that serve their financial interests at any time,” the filing added.
The request for a preliminary injunction marked an escalation in Musk's longstanding feud with Altman. The two tech giants once worked together as co-founders of OpenAI, but have since become bitter rivals on competing artificial intelligence projects.
The injunction was filed on behalf of lawyers for Musk, his artificial intelligence startup xAi, and former OpenAI board member Siobhan Gillis, an executive at brain chip company Neuralink and the mother of Musk's three children. Ta.
Musk's legal team focused on OpenAI's partnership with Microsoft as a cause for concern.
“Whatever freedoms OpenAI had under antitrust laws as a charity, it chose to give up when it became subordinate to Microsoft for profit,” the filing said. It is listed. “Therefore, OpenAI must play by the same rules as other companies.”
In a statement, OpenAI called Musk's bid “completely without merit” and accused him of recycling arguments from previous legal challenges.
Musk was initially one of OpenAI's main investors, but pulled out after falling out with Altman. The leaders of Company X, Tesla, and SpaceX first filed a lawsuit against OpenAI in March, but withdrew the complaint in August and filed the lawsuit again.
The latest complaint describes Musk's dispute with Altman as a “textbook tale of altruism and greed.”
Mr. Musk tricked Mr. Altman into transferring more than $44 million to fund OpenAI's early years with the promise of developing secure AI for the benefit of humanity, and then went on to invest in major companies including himself and Microsoft. accused of abandoning its mission to enrich wealthy investors.
The lawsuit expanded last month when Musk's lawyers added Microsoft as a defendant, citing federal antitrust claims.
Musk has also become more personally vocal about Altman, calling him “Swindly Sam” in a recent X post.
Mr. Musk's attempt to thwart OpenAI's plans creates another wrinkle in what is already a complicated process for Mr. Altman and his allies.
The company plans to reorganize as a public interest corporation, and management will make decisions based on both social impact and profit. Musk's xAI and Amazon-backed Anthropic use the same structure.
The nonprofit arm that has managed OpenAI since 2015 will remain, but it will no longer have control.
OpenAI's recent $6.6 billion funding round included investors including Josh Kushner's Thrive Capital, who said they would renegotiate the company's valuation if the transition from nonprofit to for-profit status is not completed within two years. It included a clause allowing him to do so or receive a full refund.
OpenAI is reportedly making the change in part to protect Altman from a “hostile takeover” by activist investors or management. Such an acquisition was one that briefly led to his removal by the company's previous version of the board late last year.
