OpenAI legal clash heats up

OpenAI says Elon Musk is trying to rewrite his lawsuit against the company weeks before a jury trial scheduled to start on April 27 in federal court. (bloomberg.com) In a Friday filing, OpenAI called Musk’s new requests a “legal ambush” and said they would force both sides to add new evidence and witnesses after months of pretrial work. Bloomberg reported that Musk now wants any money won at trial to go to OpenAI’s nonprofit arm and wants the court to unwind OpenAI’s conversion and oversee future financings and transactions. (bloomberg.com) Musk sued OpenAI and Microsoft in 2024, arguing that OpenAI broke its original nonprofit mission by taking billions of dollars from Microsoft and moving toward a for-profit structure. OpenAI and Microsoft have denied wrongdoing, and CNBC reported in January that Musk is seeking as much as $134 billion in alleged “wrongful gains.” (bloomberg.com, cnbc.com) The case centers on a simple corporate question with large consequences: who controls OpenAI, and what legal duties attach to a company that began as a nonprofit research lab. Musk helped found OpenAI in 2015, then left in 2018, while Sam Altman stayed and later led the company through its commercial expansion. (digit.in, bloomberg.com) The fight accelerated after a judge rejected Musk’s bid for a preliminary injunction in March 2025 but agreed to fast-track the dispute toward trial. Reuters reported that Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers declined to pause OpenAI’s restructuring while the case proceeds. (thestar.com.my) OpenAI has widened its own offensive in recent days. On April 6, the company asked the attorneys general of California and Delaware to investigate what it called Musk’s “improper and anti-competitive behavior” ahead of trial. (cnbc.com) That letter said Musk had tried “repeatedly” to gain control of OpenAI and pointed to a February 2025 bid by a Musk-led investor group to buy OpenAI’s assets for $97.375 billion. GeekWire reported that OpenAI wants jurors to hear about that offer, while Microsoft has argued Musk’s own business ties with Microsoft cut against his claims. (geekwire.com, bloomberg.com) Microsoft is in the case because Musk says its partnership with OpenAI helped drive the shift he is challenging. Bloomberg reported that the trial could top $100 billion in claimed exposure, making it one of the largest courtroom tests yet of how artificial intelligence companies can balance nonprofit roots, investor money, and control. (bloomberg.com) Unless the judge narrows the claims again before April 27, jurors will hear a dispute that started with OpenAI’s founding promises and now reaches its board structure, its Microsoft alliance, and Musk’s own bid to reshape the company. (bloomberg.com, geekwire.com)