OpenAI sent a letter Thursday to investors and banking partners warning that it expects Elon Musk to make “deliberately outlandish, attention-grabbing claims” as his lawsuit against the AI lab heads to trial in April.
The trial will mark a public escalation of Musk’s years-long feud with OpenAI, and the company’s letter serves as an attempt to preempt and alleviate investors’ concerns. OpenAI has raised billions of dollars from venture capitalists, and its valuation has swelled to $500 billion.
Musk co-founded OpenAI as a nonprofit research company in 2015 alongside several other researchers and executives, including the startup’s CEO Sam Altman.
He filed a lawsuit against OpenAI in 2024 alleging he was “assiduously manipulated” and “deceived” after the AI company explored converting to a for-profit entity and established an “opaque web of for-profit OpenAI affiliates,” including its multibillion-dollar partnership with Microsoft.
Musk departed OpenAI’s board in 2018, but he has argued that he is owed “the value of all intellectual property developed” from his contributions, potentially amounting to billions of dollars, according to a complaint.
