Elon Musk is seeking to have OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and President Greg Brockman removed from their roles as officers in the company as part of a case that’s expected to go to trial later this month.
In a legal filing on Tuesday, Musk’s lawyers laid out specific remedies their client is seeking if a judge and jury determine that Altman and OpenAI defrauded Musk, the world’s richest person.
Musk sued Altman and OpenAI in 2024, claiming the artificial intelligence company that he helped start almost a decade earlier “assiduously manipulated” and “deceived” him into donating $38 million, based on promises that the entity would remain a nonprofit. The two sides have since been embroiled in a public war of words, in addition to their legal battle and budding business rivalry.
“Plaintiff will seek an order removing Altman as a director from the OpenAI nonprofit board and removing both Altman and Brockman as officers of the OpenAI for-profit,” Musk’s lawyers said in Tuesday’s filing. “Removal of a charity’s officers and directors is a common remedy where those individuals fail to protect or carry out the charity’s public mission.”
Musk is also asking the court to make OpenAI revert to operating as an actual nonprofit, according to the filing. The company completed a restructuring in October, and is now run as a nonprofit with a 26% stake in the for-profit arm, which includes ChatGPT.
