OpenAI, led by Sam Altman, has filed a lawsuit in federal court accusing Elon Musk of using multiple strategies to harm the AI company.
According to the complaint, Musk allegedly carried out malicious campaigns and legal actions aimed at interfering with OpenAI’s operations.
The lawsuit comes after the court last month blocked Musk’s attempt to prevent OpenAI from transforming from a nonprofit to a for-profit entity.
OpenAI is seeking punitive damages and an injunction restraining Musk from any future interference.
According to OpenAI, Musk has used his social media platform X, with more than 200 million followers, to launch media attacks and malicious campaigns against the company.
The lawsuit also alleges that Musk allegedly made a fake offer to acquire OpenAI’s assets, which they described as an attempt at sabotage.
OpenAI was founded in 2015 as a research lab by Sam Altman and Elon Musk, but the latter distanced himself from the project and has openly criticised OpenAI’s alliance with Microsoft.
In February, Musk led a group that offered to buy control of OpenAI for $97.4 billion, a proposal that was quickly rejected. In contrast, last month, OpenAI secured a round of funding that valued the company at $300 billion.
Marc Toberoff, Musk’s attorney, defended the buyout offer, saying the OpenAI board should have seriously considered it.
“It’s telling that having to pay fair market value for OpenAI’s assets supposedly ‘interferes’ with its business plans,” Toberoff said in a statement.
OpenAI also highlighted the success of its ChatGPT assistant, which has 500 million weekly users and projects revenues of nearly $13 billion by 2025.
The lawsuit says Musk couldn’t tolerate the success of a company he had abandoned and declared a failure.
In March, Musk announced that X had acquired xAI in a stock swap. OpenAI, for its part, asked the court to order Musk to stop his public attacks on the company.
“Musk’s continued attacks, culminating in the recent sham takeover bid designed to disrupt OpenAI’s future, must stop,” the company stated in its filing.
He also called for Musk to be held accountable for the damage already caused and to be barred from engaging in illegal and unfair actions in the future.