Elon Musk is taking OpenAI to court as a US judge has ruled his lawsuit against the ChatGPT developer can move to trial.
A federal judge in California said there is enough evidence for a jury to consider Musk’s claims that OpenAI abandoned their promise to remain a non-profit organization, clearing the way for a trial expected to begin in March.
Elon Musk, who helped found OpenAI, is suing the company and its CEO Sam Altman over allegations that its leadership shifted the organization toward a for-profit model.
US judge says there is “plenty of evidence”
US district judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers said there was “plenty of evidence” suggesting OpenAI’s leaders told backers the nonprofit structure would be preserved. She ruled the case should be decided by a jury rather than thrown out before trial.
Musk claims he put around $38 million into OpenAI in its early days, roughly 60% of its initial funding, based on those assurances. He is seeking unspecified damages, which he has described as recovering “ill-gotten gains.”
The case comes as Musk’s AI startup xAI and the Grok chatbot now compete directly with OpenAI in the generative AI space.
OpenAI has denied the allegations and pushed back strongly on Musk’s claims. In a statement after the hearing, the company said: “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.”
Microsoft, which is also named in the lawsuit, has argued there is no evidence it helped OpenAI carry out any wrongdoing.
