Elon Musk is leading a high-profile lawsuit against OpenAI

The three were part of the founding team of OpenAI, with Musk investing $38 million in early funding before the founders’ relationship ended due to disagreements over the company’s design and mission, including whether OpenAI should be developed into Musk’s own Tesla. Musk left and, a few years later, founded xAI – his direct competitor to OpenAI, which is now owned by Musk’s SpaceX.

In recent years, Musk has filed at least four lawsuits against OpenAI, most of which have been abandoned or dismissed. This one, however, names Altman, Brockman, Microsoft, and OpenAI itself as plaintiffs, and filed a lawsuit in federal court in California. It is expected to provide testimony from AI industry leaders, including Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Microsoft CTO Kevin Scott, and former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati (who is now the founder of his own AI company, Thinking Machines Lab).

The lawsuit alleges that OpenAI breached its core mission of building AGI, or artificial intelligence, that benefits the public, and alleges fraud, unjust enrichment, and breach of OpenAI’s charitable trust. Musk he is calling The court “removed Sam Altman and Greg Brockman from their positions of authority and the financial benefits they obtained from OpenAI’s illegal profit-making and conversion activities” and released OpenAI’s recovery of profits, among other things.