Elon Musk has filed a preliminary injunction to halt OpenAI’s transition into a for-profit company, accusing OpenAI of anticompetitive acts.
The lawsuit argues OpenAI discouraged investors from supporting the company’s rivals and benefitted from “wrongfully obtained competitively sensitive information” from Microsoft.
"OpenAI’s path from a non-profit to for-profit behemoth is replete with per se anticompetitive practices, flagrant breaches of its charitable mission, and rampant self-dealing,” according to the lawsuit.
xAI, Musk’s own artificial intelligence company, is named as a co-plaintiff. According to the suit, OpenAI allegedly asked investors not to fund xAI and similar businesses.
“Musk has further verified that at least one major investor in OpenAI’s October 2024 funding round has subsequently declined to invest in xAI,” the suit says.
The suit also argues that Microsoft has shared information and resources with OpenAI in an anticompetitive manner.
Microsoft first partnered with OpenAI in 2019, and OpenAI’s models are a major component of Microsoft’s Azure AI.
OpenAI said in September that it would be restructured from a non-profit into a for-profit company, although an OpenAI non-profit would continue to own a minority stake. Musk is seeking a court order that would stop this transition.
Musk previously filed a lawsuit against OpenAI in March, accusing OpenAI of breaching its commitment to open-source technology, but withdrew the suit in June.
He sued the company again in August, saying he was “assiduously manipulated” into backing OpenAI.
Musk invested around US$50 million into OpenAI when the company was founded.
He was initially an OpenAI co-chair before leaving the board in 2018.
“Elon’s fourth attempt [at legal action], which again recycles the same baseless complaints, continues to be utterly without merit,” an OpenAI spokesperson said.