What just happened? Elon Musk's battle with OpenAI is heading to the courts after a California judge said there was sufficient evidence to warrant a jury trial. Musk's 2024 lawsuit accuses the ChatGPT maker of breach of contract by abandoning its founding mission of creating a nonprofit that benefits humanity by moving to a for-profit model.
US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in Oakland, California, rejected OpenAI's last-ditch attempt to have Musk's case dismissed.
"This case is going to trial," she said. "I think there's plenty of evidence. It's circumstantial, but that's how these things work."
Musk was one of the co-founders, backers, and initial board members of OpenAI, departing the company in 2018 over what he said was a conflict of interest with Tesla.
Musk says that when he was approached by Altman and another co-founder, Greg Brockman, to help fund the startup in 2015, he was promised that OpenAI would be an open-source, not-for-profit company focused on safely creating an artificial general intelligence (AGI) and countering the competitive threat from Google.
Musk claims the co-founders planned a for-profit switch to enrich themselves, including through a deal with Microsoft worth billions and a recent corporate restructuring.
The world's richest person says he has donated $38 million to OpenAI, around 60% of the company's funding, along with strategic guidance and credibility to support its mission.
Rogers said that rather than deciding for herself, there were enough disputed facts to let a jury decide the issues at a trial, which is scheduled to begin in March.
"There were assurances made, and promises made, that the structure would be maintained," she said. "There was lots of information that was not shared."
Musk is seeking unspecified monetary damages from what he calls "ill-gotten gains" by OpenAI, along with a judgment to void Microsoft's licensing agreement with OpenAI.
Change your name
– Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 6, 2024
Days after Musk filed the suit in 2024, OpenAI published old emails it received from the billionaire. The messages show he actually supported the company's plan to create a for-profit arm and encouraged it to raise at least $1 billion in funding.
Microsoft, also a defendant, urged Rogers to throw out Musk's claims against it. A lawyer for the Redmond giant said there was no evidence that the company aided and abetted OpenAI.
In a statement after the hearing, an OpenAI spokesperson 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."