Musk escalates OpenAI lawsuit

Elon Musk initially filed a lawsuit against OpenAI back in February, alleging the ChatGPT maker had gone back on its original, non-profit founding mission. He closed the case in July, only to reopen it one month later.

Now, it seems his lawyers have been working hard to strengthen the 107-page complaint: They’ve added fresh new allegations of antitrust violations, new defendants—including Microsoft, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, and former OpenAI board member and senior Microsoft executive, Dee Templeton—and new plaintiffs, including the mother of three of his children and former Tesla project director and current Neuralink exec, Shivon Zilis, and his own AI start-up, xAI.

The amended complaint accuses OpenAI of “actively trying to eliminate competitors” such as xAI by “extracting promises from investors not to fund them.” It also states that OpenAI is unfairly benefiting from Microsoft’s partnership, with favorable access to its compute, infrastructure, and expertise, which has affected his own business:

“xAI has been harmed by, without limitation, an inability to obtain compute from Microsoft on terms anywhere near as favorable as OpenAI receives.”

He rips into Templeton—who was a previous non-voting OpenAI board observer—accusing her of facilitating agreements and the exchange of “completely sensitive information” between Microsoft and OpenAI within their “de facto merger,” which would violate antitrust rules.

Hoffman, who is also a partner at investment firm Greylock, has also been accused of violating his position as an OpenAI and Microsoft board member, by having a privileged and illicit “view into the company’s dealings.”

“The purpose of the prohibition on interlocking directorates is to prevent sharing of competitively sensitive information in violation of antitrust laws and/or providing a forum for the coordination of other anticompetitive activity. Allowing Templeton and Hoffman to serve as members of OpenAI’s …. board undermined this purpose. “

Musk’s new plaintiff, Zilis, who was on OpenAI’s board for four years, before stepping down in 2023, reportedly voiced similar concerns as Musk about OpenAi’s deals, which apparently fell on “deaf ears.”

The complaint reveals that:

“No amount of clever drafting nor surfeit of creative dealmaking can obscure what is happening: OpenAI, co-founded by Musk as an independent charity committed to safety and transparency, is fast becoming a full for-profit subsidiary of Microsoft.”