OpenAI sues Elon Musk, says he’s trying to 'seize control' of AI leadership
Legal filing claims harassment, fake bids, and public attacks threaten company’s future.
OpenAI countersued Elon Musk on Wednesday, accusing him of a pattern of harassment and asking a federal judge to bar him from "further unlawful and unfair action" as their legal battle over the future of the company intensifies.
Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman co-founded the AI company in 2015, but Musk exited before the organization became one of the most prominent players in artificial intelligence. Since founding his own AI firm, xAI, in 2023, Musk has sought to block OpenAI from completing its transition to a for-profit structure—a shift that the company says is essential to securing its current $40 billion fundraising round. That transition must be completed by the end of the year.
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Elon Musk (right) and Sam Altman.
(Photos: Tomohiro Ohsumi/Getty Images, Kevin Lamarque/AP)
In a court filing submitted to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, OpenAI claimed that Musk is “trying to harm OpenAI” through a range of coordinated efforts, including “press attacks, malicious campaigns broadcast to Musk’s more than 200 million followers on the platform he controls, pretextual demands for corporate records, harassing legal claims, and a sham bid for OpenAI’s assets.”
OpenAI asked the court to bar Musk from further attacks and hold him “responsible for the damage he has already caused.” A jury trial is scheduled for spring 2025.
Musk's legal team responded by pointing to the $97.4 billion unsolicited takeover bid made earlier this year by a Musk-led consortium—a proposal OpenAI rejected. “Had OpenAI's board genuinely considered the bid as they were obligated to do, they would have seen how serious it was,” said Musk’s lawyer Marc Toberoff in a statement to Reuters. “It’s telling that having to pay fair market value for OpenAI’s assets allegedly 'interferes' with their business plans.”
In a post on X, the social media platform Musk owns, OpenAI stated: “Elon’s nonstop actions against us are just bad-faith tactics to slow down OpenAI and seize control of the leading AI innovations for his personal benefit.”
Last year, Musk—who also leads Tesla and SpaceX—sued OpenAI and Altman, accusing them of betraying the company’s founding mission to build AI for the benefit of humanity, not corporate profit. OpenAI and Altman have denied the allegations, with Altman accusing Musk of seeking to slow down a major competitor in the AI race.
At stake is not just control over OpenAI’s technology, but the very structure of how cutting-edge artificial intelligence will be developed, funded, and governed in the years ahead.
