{"id":360751,"date":"2026-01-09T11:03:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-09T11:03:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/360751\/"},"modified":"2026-01-09T11:03:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T11:03:15","slug":"musk-lawsuit-over-openai-for-profit-conversion-can-go-to-trial-us-judge-says-openai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/360751\/","title":{"rendered":"Musk lawsuit over OpenAI for-profit conversion can go to trial, US judge says | OpenAI"},"content":{"rendered":"

Elon Musk\u2019s lawsuit against OpenAI<\/a> is to go to trial after a US judge said there is plenty of evidence to support the billionaire\u2019s case.<\/p>\n

The world\u2019s richest man, who co-founded OpenAI, is suing the ChatGPT developer and its chief executive, Sam Altman<\/a>, over claims its leaders violated the organisation\u2019s founding mission by shifting to a for-profit model.<\/p>\n

The US district judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in Oakland, California, told a hearing there was plenty of evidence that suggested OpenAI\u2019s leaders made assurances that its original nonprofit structure was going to be maintained.<\/p>\n

She said there were enough disputed facts to let a jury consider the claims at a trial scheduled for March, rather than decide the issues herself. Rogers said she would issue a written order after the hearing that addresses OpenAI\u2019s attempt to throw out the case.<\/p>\n

The court dispute comes amid a broader showdown over dominance in the market for generative artificial intelligence. Musk\u2019s xAI<\/a> and its chatbot Grok<\/a> are competing with OpenAI and other technology developers.<\/p>\n

Musk is seeking unspecified monetary damages from what he calls \u201cill-gotten gains\u201d by OpenAI.<\/p>\n

In a statement after the hearing, OpenAI said: \u201cMr Musk\u2019s lawsuit continues to be baseless and a part of his ongoing pattern of harassment, and we look forward to demonstrating this at trial.\u201d<\/p>\n

Musk\u2019s startup xAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

Steven Molo, a lead trial attorney for the billionaire and xAI, said after the hearing: \u201cWe look forward to presenting all the evidence of the defendants\u2019 wrongdoing to the jury.\u201d<\/p>\n

Musk contends he contributed about $38m (\u00a328m), roughly 60% of OpenAI\u2019s early funding, along with strategic guidance and credibility, based on assurances that the organisation would remain a nonprofit dedicated to the public benefit.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit accuses OpenAI co-founders Altman and Greg Brockman of plotting a for-profit switch to enrich themselves, culminating in multibillion-dollar deals with Microsoft and a recent restructuring.<\/p>\n

OpenAI, Altman and Brockman have denied the claims, and have described Musk as \u201ca frustrated commercial competitor seeking to slow down a mission-driven market leader\u201d.<\/p>\n

Microsoft, which is also a defendant, urged Rogers to throw out Musk\u2019s claims against it. A lawyer for Microsoft said there was no evidence that the company \u201caided and abetted\u201d OpenAI.<\/p>\n

Microsoft has been approached for comment.<\/p>\n

Lawyers for OpenAI at the hearing asked Rogers to enter judgment against Musk, contending that he had not shown enough of a factual basis to sustain his allegations including fraud and breach of contract.<\/p>\n

OpenAI also contends that Musk failed to bring his allegations in a timely manner. The judge said the jury would be asked to weigh whether the lawsuit was filed outside the statute of limitations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Elon Musk\u2019s lawsuit against OpenAI is to go to trial after a US judge said there is plenty…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":360752,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[554,733,4308,86,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-360751","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-artificialintelligence","11":"tag-technology","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360751","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=360751"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360751\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/360752"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=360751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=360751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=360751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}