Elon Musk's lawsuit against Sam Altman began this week with the world's richest man claiming that he was tricked into investing in the company by Sam Altman and OpenAI president Greg Brockman. Musk said Altman was deceptive when he said that OpenAI was for the benefit of all humanity and not for personal gain.
In the early stages of OpenAI's founding, Musk invested $38 million in the company, which is now valued at around $800 billion. Musk filed the lawsuit in 2024, alleging that Altman violated the original purpose of the company, which was signed by Altman, Brockman, Musk, Reid Hoffman, Jessica Livingston, and Peter Thiel when OpenAI was founded in 2015.
In the early stages of its founding, Musk was the largest investor in OpenAI. He resigned from the board of directors in 2018 due to a dispute with Altman.
OpenAI's lawyers, in cross-examination of Musk, claimed that Musk had the same plan to turn OpenAI into a for-profit company and only clashed with Altman after being barred from becoming CEO and given more shares to determine the vote.
If Musk wins, he wants the court to remove Altman and Brockman from the leadership of OpenAI and to overturn its conversion to a for-profit entity. He has also sought damages of more than $180 billion, to be paid to OpenAI's parent company from the income of its profitable subsidiaries.
