Elon Musk has filed a lawsuit demanding $134 billion from OpenAI and Microsoft, claiming the artificial-intelligence company betrayed its founding nonprofit mission after he supplied the seed money and credibility that got it started.
At a Glance
- Musk seeks damages equal to Kenya’s entire GDP after bankrolling OpenAI’s 2015 launch
- OpenAI president Greg Brockman predicted a “very nasty fight” if the nonprofit ever went for-profit
- The suit labels OpenAI’s restructuring an illicit grab for “wrongful gains”
- Musk now runs rival xAI, valued at $230 billion
The dispute centers on Musk’s claim that he contributed roughly $38 million, about 60 percent of OpenAI’s initial funding, plus recruiting, mentoring, and the reputational boost that came with his involvement. Court papers filed by his legal team argue those contributions were made on the understanding that OpenAI would remain a nonprofit devoted to safe, open artificial general intelligence.
Instead, the suit contends, the organization restructured into a for-profit public-benefit corporation controlled by the separate OpenAI Foundation. That shift, Musk argues, improperly converted his early support into private gain for the company’s current stakeholders.
OpenAI has repeatedly dismissed the case as harassment. On January 8 the company called the suit “baseless and a part of his ongoing pattern of harassment.” Eight days later Bloomberg quoted an OpenAI spokesperson saying, “Mr Musk’s lawsuit continues to be baseless and a part of his ongoing pattern of harassment, and we look forward to demonstrating this at trial,” adding, “This latest unserious demand is aimed solely at furthering this harassment campaign.”
Neither side disputes that OpenAI president Greg Brockman foresaw the clash. In a 2017 diary-style note he wrote that he could not “see us turning this into a for-profit without a very nasty fight” with Musk.
Early media coverage portrayed the split as amicable. A 2018 New York Times article stated that Musk had “stepped down from the OpenAI board, with the lab saying this would allow him to ‘eliminate a potential future conflict.'” The new suit claims the conflict was not eliminated but rather institutionalized through the restructuring that followed.
The court filing signals that the $134 billion figure may grow. Attorneys for Musk state he “intends to seek other monetary remedies at trial as well, including punitive damages.”
While demanding that sum, Musk also heads xAI, a competing AI company valued at $230 billion. CNBC reported last year that xAI quietly dropped its own public-benefit-corporation status, removing the same nonprofit constraint Musk now says OpenAI violated.
Key Takeaways
- Musk’s suit seeks the largest monetary judgment ever requested from an AI company
- Internal documents show OpenAI leadership expected conflict if it pursued for-profit status
- OpenAI labels the case harassment and vows to fight it in court
- The litigation could set precedent for how nonprofit-to-for-profit conversions are handled in the tech sector
