Gigantic amounts are involved Elon Musk and AI companies are more normal. The amount involved in a legal dispute between Musk and the ChatGPT developer is correspondingly large OpenAI goes. The tech billionaire is demanding up to $109.4 billion from OpenAI in court. Musk’s lawyers named the amount calculated by an expert. The legal dispute has been going on since 2024. Musk co-founded OpenAI in 2015 and claims in his lawsuit that he was unlawfully deprived of his investments. OpenAI rejects the allegations.
Microsoft should also pay
In his calculations, the expert used by Musk pointed out, among other things, that Musk initially contributed $38 million to finance OpenAI as well as his contacts and skills. In return, he is entitled to a share of OpenAI’s current value. The expert calculated an amount between $65.5 billion and $109.43 billion. From the most important OpenAI partner and investor Microsoft Musk is demanding between $13.3 billion and $25.06 billion, according to the court filing. OpenAI described Musk’s claim as “dubious” in a statement to the financial service Bloomberg.
Musk filed a lawsuit against the company in 2024. His accusation: OpenAI had deviated from the agreed path, according to which the company’s research into artificial intelligence should benefit humanity. Instead of serving the common good, OpenAI is now a profit-oriented company and primarily works for Microsoft. This is a “flagrant violation” of the original founding agreement. The legal dispute also involves alleged antitrust violations, fraud and the active exclusion of Musk from the later successful company.
OpenAI points to competition from xAI
OpenAI counters that Musk sought “full control” of the company and the top position. In 2018 he also promoted OpenAI with the electric car manufacturer he runs Tesla to put together. That year, Musk left OpenAI amid a dispute.
The tech billionaire then founded his own AI company called xAI in 2023, whose chatbot Grok competes with ChatGPT. In view of this, OpenAI argues that Musk wants to slow down a competitor with the legal dispute. However, a judge rejected OpenAI and Microsoft’s request to dismiss Musk’s lawsuit. The case is now heading for a trial in April.