AI boom meets legal fights
Investors are pushing back on OpenAI’s huge $852 billion valuation as the firm pivots toward enterprise customers, and that financial scrutiny is unfolding alongside sharper legal and policy fights over AI liability. Anthropic is publicly opposing an Illinois AI‑liability bill that OpenAI backed, Microsoft has asked a court to dismiss itself from a ChatGPT Plus pricing lawsuit, and industry adoption is already being reported at about 50% among businesses — all signs the sector’s growth phase is turning into governance and courtroom battles. (reuters.com) (wired.com) (timesofindia.indiatimes.com) (markets.financialcontent.com)
OpenAI’s $852 billion valuation is facing pushback from some of its own investors as the company shifts harder toward enterprise sales. (usnews.com) Reuters, citing the Financial Times on April 14, reported that backers are questioning whether that price can hold as Anthropic gains ground with business customers. One investor told the Financial Times that making the round work implied an initial public offering valuation above $1.2 trillion. (usnews.com) At the same time, the fight is moving into legislatures. Wired reported on April 15 that Anthropic is opposing an Illinois bill backed by OpenAI that would sharply limit when AI companies could be sued for “critical harm,” including mass deaths or major financial losses. (wired.com) OpenAI had already testified in favor of that Illinois proposal, arguing that broad liability could punish developers for how other people use their models. Anthropic told Wired the bill goes too far by shielding labs even when their systems contribute to catastrophic damage. (wired.com 1) (wired.com 2) The courtroom fight is running in parallel. Microsoft asked a federal judge to dismiss an antitrust suit from ChatGPT Plus subscribers, saying users bought the service from OpenAI, not Microsoft, and therefore cannot show direct antitrust injury from Microsoft’s conduct. (finance.yahoo.com) The subscribers claim Microsoft’s Azure exclusivity with OpenAI constrained computing supply, raised costs and weakened service quality. Microsoft said OpenAI sets ChatGPT subscription prices, and it also argued that any dispute tied to the service belongs in arbitration rather than federal court. (finance.yahoo.com) Those legal fights are landing as business use of artificial intelligence moves past experimentation. MarketMinute, citing the March 2026 Ramp Artificial Intelligence Index, reported on April 14 that 50.4% of United States enterprises now pay for artificial intelligence models or tools, up from 46.8% in January. (financialcontent.com) Ramp’s customer-spending data has also shown Anthropic gaining share with new business buyers. Axios reported on March 18 that Anthropic was capturing more than 73% of spending from companies buying artificial intelligence tools for the first time. (axios.com) That leaves the industry in a different phase than the one investors backed in 2023 and 2024. The race is still about model performance, but the immediate disputes now center on enterprise revenue, who pays when systems cause harm, and which company can be sued when customers say prices or service deteriorated. (usnews.com) (wired.com) (finance.yahoo.com) For OpenAI, Anthropic and Microsoft, the next test is no longer just whether companies will buy artificial intelligence. It is whether courts, lawmakers and investors accept the terms on which that business is being built. (usnews.com) (wired.com) (finance.yahoo.com)
