Elon Musk wants OpenAI CEO Sam Altman removed from leadership positions as their legal battle heads to trial this month, seeking to force the artificial intelligence organization back to its nonprofit roots.
The Tesla founder filed court documents on Tuesday seeking orders to remove Altman as a director from the OpenAI nonprofit board and strip both him and President Greg Brockman of their officer roles in the for-profit entity. He also wants OpenAI restored to operating as an actual nonprofit research organization.
The remedies aim to “unwind OpenAI’s for-profit conversation and restructuring,” Musk stated in the documents. He wants any damages awarded at trial directed to the startup’s charitable arm rather than his personal accounts.
Jury selection for the case begins April 27 in Oakland federal court. Musk sued Altman and OpenAI in 2024, claiming the organization he helped found in 2015 “assiduously manipulated” and “deceived” him into donating $38 million based on promises it would remain nonprofit.
OpenAI completed a restructuring last October that created a nonprofit with a 26% stake in the for-profit arm housing ChatGPT. The organization called Musk’s lawsuit “nothing more than a harassment campaign that’s driven by ego, jealousy and a desire to slow down a competitor” in a social media response.
Musk previously indicated he would seek up to $134 billion in damages from OpenAI and lead investor Microsoft, calling those amounts “wrongful gains” resulting from his early work and financial support. His lawyers now say they want “to return all ill-gotten gains, including Microsoft’s, to the OpenAI charity.”
The legal confrontation follows years of escalating tensions between former collaborators who became direct competitors. Musk left OpenAI’s board in 2018 after failing to convince executives to merge with Tesla.
He launched competing AI company xAI in 2023, which SpaceX acquired earlier this year in a deal valuing the combined entity at $1.25 trillion.
Last February, OpenAI rejected Musk’s unsolicited $97.4 billion bid to acquire assets of the controlling nonprofit. Days before Tuesday’s filing, strategy chief Jason Kwon urged California and Delaware attorneys general to investigate Musk for potential “improper and anti-competitive behavior” ahead of trial.
The case arrives as investigative journalist Ronan Farrow published findings from more than a year of reporting on Altman for The New Yorker, examining questions about power and influence in artificial intelligence leadership.
