{"id":394686,"date":"2026-01-08T07:08:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T07:08:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/394686\/"},"modified":"2026-01-08T07:08:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T07:08:07","slug":"musk-lawsuit-over-openai-for-profit-conversion-can-head-to-trial-us-judge-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/394686\/","title":{"rendered":"Musk lawsuit over OpenAI for-profit conversion can head to trial, US judge says"},"content":{"rendered":"

Musk claims OpenAI violated its founding mission in restructuring to a for-profit entityOpenAI denies claims, calls Musk’s lawsuit baselessMusk was a co-founder of OpenAI, now runs a rival AI companyWASHINGTON, Jan 7 (Reuters) – Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk<\/a> persuaded a judge on Wednesday to allow a jury trial on his allegations that ChatGPT maker OpenAI violated its founding mission in its high-profile restructuring to a for-profit entity.<\/p>\n

Musk was a cofounder of OpenAI in 2015 but left in 2018 and now runs an AI company that competes with it.<\/p>\n

Sign up here.<\/a><\/p>\n

U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in Oakland, California, said at a hearing that there was \u201cplenty of evidence\u201d suggesting OpenAI\u2019s leaders made assurances that its original nonprofit structure<\/a> was going to be maintained.<\/p>\n

The judge 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. She said she would issue a written order after the hearing that addresses OpenAI’s bid to throw out the case.<\/p>\n

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

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

OpenAI in a statement after the hearing said: “Mr Musk’s lawsuit continues to be baseless and a part of his ongoing pattern of harassment, and we look forward to demonstrating this at trial.”<\/p>\n

Musk’s artificial intelligence startup, xAI, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

Steven Molo, a lead trial attorney for Musk and xAI, said after the hearing that “we look forward to presenting all the evidence of the defendants’ wrongdoing to the jury.”<\/p>\n

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

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

OpenAI, Altman and Brockman have denied the claims, and they called Musk “a frustrated commercial competitor seeking to slow down a mission-driven market leader.”<\/p>\n

Microsoft, which is also a defendant, urged Gonzalez Rogers to toss Musk’s claims against it. A lawyer for Microsoft said there was no evidence that the company “aided and abetted” OpenAI.<\/p>\n

Microsoft did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

Lawyers for OpenAI at the hearing asked Gonzalez 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. Gonzalez Rogers said the jury would be asked to weigh whether the lawsuit was filed outside the statute of limitations.<\/p>\n

Reporting by Mike Scarcella in Washington; Editing by David Bario and Matthew Lewis<\/p>\n

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab<\/a><\/p>\n

Purchase Licensing Rights<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Musk claims OpenAI violated its founding mission in restructuring to a for-profit entityOpenAI denies claims, calls Musk’s lawsuit…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":394687,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[182548,184321,182526,183329,89749,28,184713,182530,187636,182540,183099,185356,182539,183091,183092,7611,74353,182531,186207,191030,191031,184375,184378,183336,185352,6655,184323,184366,182549,185355,183097,182546,183078,188625,189863,183090,191029,7618,183082,185534,183084,172,26311,182551,191028,182550,25],"class_list":["post-394686","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-amers","tag-arti","tag-bact","tag-bisv","tag-biz","tag-business","tag-clj","tag-cmpny","tag-destlit","tag-destocabsm","tag-destocatpm","tag-destolit","tag-destousbsm","tag-destoustcm","tag-destoustpm","tag-fin","tag-fins","tag-gen","tag-govact","tag-gvgvf","tag-gvgvf1","tag-invbis","tag-invm","tag-itse","tag-judic","tag-legal","tag-mlaisv","tag-mtpix","tag-namer","tag-nrlpaolit","tag-packageus-top-news","tag-privt","tag-publ","tag-pve","tag-reorg","tag-reuters-legal","tag-rulescompany-openai","tag-sci","tag-sofw","tag-sofw1","tag-swit","tag-tech","tag-tmt","tag-topcmb","tag-topicbusiness-elon-musk","tag-topnws","tag-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=394686"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394686\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/394687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=394686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=394686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=394686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}