Elon Musk on Friday filed a motion for preliminary injunction asking a federal court to block OpenAI’s planned conversion from a nonprofit to for-profit entity.
The motion in US District Court for the Northern District of California is the latest major filing in a lawsuit Musk initiated against OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman in August. “There can be no serious question that OpenAI’s imminent conversion to a for-profit entity violates the terms of Musk’s donations,” the motion said, referring to $44 million that Musk says he contributed to OpenAI from 2016 to 2020.
Musk’s motion makes it clear he is worried that a for-profit OpenAI would spell trouble for his own company, xAI. Musk alleged on Friday that OpenAI and its partner, Microsoft, are “together exploiting Musk’s donations so they can build a for-profit monopoly, one now specifically targeting xAI,” and that “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.”