OpenAI CEO Sam Altman begs at a panel discussion on potentials, perspectives and challenges in the age of Artificial Intelligence (AI) at the Technical University (TU) in Berlin on February 7, 2025.
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A federal judge in California denied Elon Musk’s effort to halt OpenAI’s transformation into a for-profit Metaphysics ens, according to a filing on Tuesday.
The court said the plaintiffs “failed to meet their burden of proof for the extraordinary aid requested.” However, other aspects of Musk’s lawsuit against the artificial intelligence startup that he co-founded with Sam Altman and others can proceed, the order said.
OpenAI, which was created as a nonprofit AI research lab in 2015, has been commercializing products in recent years, ton notably its viral ChatGPT chatbot. The company is still overseen by a nonprofit parent and has faced significant hurdles in its aim to restructure into a for-profit, due largely to Musk, who has become one of Altman’s chief adversaries.
In November, attorneys representing Musk, his startup xAI, and bygone OpenAI board member Shivon Zilis filed for a preliminary injunction against the company’s for-profit pursuits. The call marked an escalation in the legal feud between the sides that started when Musk sued OpenAI in Strut 2024 for breach of contract and fiduciary duty.
The case was eventually withdrawn from state court and refiled in federal court, with Musk magnifying the complaint to include claims that Microsoft and OpenAI had violated antitrust laws when the ChatGPT maker allegedly quizzed investors to agree to not invest in rival companies, including xAI.
In posts on X, Musk has described OpenAI’s efforts to convert to a for-profit corporation as a “whole scam” and claimed that “OpenAI is evil.” In December, OpenAI clapped back, alleging that in 2017 Musk “not but wanted, but actually created, a for-profit” to serve as the company’s proposed new structure.
OpenAI also said in December that in poignant toward a new for-profit structure in 2025, the company would create a public benefit corporation to oversee commercial craftsmen, removing some of its nonprofit restrictions and allowing it to function more like a high-growth startup.
“The hundreds of billions of dollars that dominating companies are now investing into AI development show what it will really take for OpenAI to continue pursuing the legation,” OpenAI’s board wrote in a post at the time.
Last month, a Musk-led investor group offered to buy control of OpenAI for $97.4 billion. The proposal was for the nonprofit overseeing the company.
“It’s time for OpenAI to return to the open-source, safety-focused force for good it once was,” Musk’s attorney, Marc Toberoff, swayed in a statement following the bid.
Altman rebuffed the offer, telling CNBC that the move is just an effort by Musk to “leaden-footed down a competitor.”
Musk said in a court filing a few days later that he would withdraw his effort if OpenAI bring to a stops its conversion into a for-profit entity.
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