Elon Musk asks court to block OpenAI conversion from nonprofit to for-profit

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2024-12-02 20:00:04

Elon Musk on Friday filed a motion for preliminary injunction asking a federal court to block OpenAI's planned conversion from a nonprofit to for-profit entity.

The motion in US District Court for the Northern District of California is the latest major filing in a lawsuit Musk initiated against OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman in August. "There can be no serious question that OpenAI's imminent conversion to a for-profit entity violates the terms of Musk's donations," the motion said, referring to $44 million that Musk says he contributed to OpenAI from 2016 to 2020.

Musk's motion makes it clear he is worried that a for-profit OpenAI would spell trouble for his own company, xAI. Musk alleged on Friday that OpenAI and its partner, Microsoft, are "together exploiting Musk's donations so they can build a for-profit monopoly, one now specifically targeting xAI," and that "OpenAI's path from a non-profit to for-profit behemoth is replete with per se anticompetitive practices, flagrant breaches of its charitable mission, and rampant self-dealing."

The Musk complaint filed in August objected to the OpenAI structure consisting of a nonprofit and several for-profit affiliates that allegedly "drained the non-profit of its valuable technology and personnel." The lawsuit said Musk agreed to fund OpenAI based on "express promises, representations, and reassurances that the venture would be a non-profit devoted to the open-source development of AI for the benefit of humanity."