The Elon Musk (r) lawsuit seeks removal of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman(l)|World Economic Forum; Wcamp9|CC BY-NC-SA 2.0; CC BY 4.0
Elon Musk and Sam Altman are set to enter a high-stakes trial in California next week. Musk’s $134 billion lawsuit alleges that OpenAI CEO Altman and President Greg Brockman breached a founding agreement to keep the AI startup a nonprofit.
Jury selection for the case begins Monday, and here is what led to the legal battle:
Musk, along with a few other tech leaders, founded OpenAI as a nonprofit in 2015. However, he left the company’s board in 2018, citing disagreements with Altman and Brockman over the direction of the firm.
Since then, OpenAI has transitioned to a for-profit structure and is now valued at over $850 billion. The Musk lawsuit claims this, among other things, is a breach of charitable trust.
He seeks the removal of Altman and Brockman, the unwinding of the for-profit restructuring, and the return of “ill-gotten gains” to the OpenAI nonprofit arm.
The court hearing comes on the heels of OpenAI and Musk’s SpaceX eyeing potential IPOs this year. High-profile witnesses, including Musk, Altman, Brockman, and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, are expected to testify.