Elon Musk sues OpenAI again, claims he was tricked into helping form company

SAN FRANCISCO(CN) — Elon Musk sued OpenAI founders Sam Altman and Greg Bockman Monday morning, marking the second lawsuit Musk has brought accusing the artificial intelligence company of straying from its founding values.

In his 83-page complaint filed in San Francisco federal court, Musk claims that Altman and Brockman — who co-founded OpenAI with Musk in 2015 — tricked Musk into co-founding OpenAI when they promised that the then-nonprofit would be a company focused on safety and the betterment of humanity versus shareholder profits.

Musk poured $50 million into the forming of OpenAI in 2015 to stop Google from potentially dominating the artificial intelligence sphere. He stepped down from the company's board of directors in 2018, citing a potential conflict of interest due to his work with AI through electronic vehicle manufacturer Tesla.

Musk withdrew a similar lawsuit two months ago against OpenAI, the artificial intelligence developer best known for Chat-GPT. 

“Altman and his long-time associate Brockman assiduously manipulated Musk into co-founding their spurious non-profit venture, OpenAI, Inc., by promising that it would chart a safer, more open course than profit-driven tech giants,” Musk wrote in his complaint.

"The idea Altman sold Musk was that a non-profit, funded and backed by Musk, would attract world-class scientists, conduct leading AI research and development, and, as a meaningful counterweight to Google’s DeepMind in the race for Artificial General Intelligence decentralize its technology by making it open source," he added.

Musk claims that after he helped fund and recruit scientists to the venture, he was “betrayed” by Altman when the company transitioned to a for-profit venture that began partnering with Microsoft in 2023.

“The perfidy and deceit are of Shakespearean proportions. In partnership with Microsoft, Altman established an opaque web of for-profit OpenAI affiliates, engaged in rampant self-dealing, seized OpenAI, Inc.’s board, and systematically drained the non-profit of its valuable technology and personnel. The resulting OpenAI network, in which Altman and Microsoft hold significant interests, was recently valued at a staggering $100 billion,” Musk wrote.

Musk is seeking a jury trial for fraud and breach of contract, and wants OpenAI to be held accountable for “intentional misrepresentations” to Musk and the public by forcing a disgorgement of their monetary gains. 

He is also seeking an injunction during the pendency of the action stopping OpenAI’s partnership with Microsoft, which he says violates OpenAI’s non-profit mission and breaches the agreements Musk made with Altman and Brockman when he co-founded OpenAI.

“Musk therefore desires a judicial determination that OpenAI, Inc.’s license to Microsoft is null and void,” Musk wrote in the complaint.

Musk is represented by Marc Toberoff, of Toberoff and Associates in Malibu, California. Toberoff is a well-known intellectual property lawyer who has taken on titans such as Disney and Warner Bros. during his career.

The similar suit Musk filed in February accused Altman and OpenAI of many of the same things the new suit does.

OpenAI argued in court documents that were that case to proceed to discovery, it would be revealed that Musk supported a for-profit structure for OpenAI that would be controlled by Musk. When his wishes weren’t granted, he dropped the project, according to OpenAI’s court declarations.

On the eve of a hearing to dismiss the case, Musk withdrew that suit in June with an option to refile.

Toberoff’s office and OpenAI did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the new lawsuit.

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