Fact Checked by 
Elon Musk, the tech magnate, is opposing OpenAI’s pivot from a non-profit to a for-profit company. A preliminary injunction has been filed, which targets the ChatGPT maker and several others working with or for them.
Musk and OpenAI have been involved in the lawsuit tango since March 2024, which was dropped in July. However, Tesla’s CEO has reopened the move to bring about an injunction against more entities.
Among them are CEO Sam Altman, Greg Brockman – who recently returned to the company – the co-founder of Linkedin, and ex-board member for OpenAI, Reid Hoffman. The Microsoft Vice President for Technology & Research Partnerships and Operations, Dee Templeton is also listed, as well as Microsoft itself.
Microsoft was once a massive investor in OpenAI, spending over $13 billion on the company and holding a 49% stake. It has integrated a ChatGPT-powered layer, now labeled as CoPilot+, into almost every facet of Windows and its products.
The injunction itself mostly concerns itself with OpenAI’s operations, on top of the conversion to a for-profit company. OpenAI has been running a “capped-profit” arm since 2019, a year after Musk originally left the company’s board over the way the company was being run.
The non-profit governs that “capped-profit” entity, but in 2019 OpenAI said that any returns made on the company would be “100x” the investment.
OpenAI’s for-profit move has also coincided with many top-level executives leaving. It will also mean that the non-profit board will no longer have oversight of the company’s business.
OpenAI going from non-profit to maximum profit is a total scam!!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 1, 2024
However, Musk has also brought up the issue of dissuading investors from working with competitors, like Musk’s own xAI. It makes the ChatGPT alternative, Grok. According to TechCrunch, the other issue is using “wrongfully obtained competitively sensitive information” through the tight-knit relationship Microsoft has built.
Musk vs Altman
Musk’s filing has also called for another “pause”. In 2023, Musk – and others – wanted a pause on the development of AI. This was ignored and is now being positioned as a way to get OpenAI to stick to its non-profit mission. Musk has also alleged previously that he has lost more than $44 million donating to the company.
OpenAI is currently racing against the clock. Bloomberg reported that the company’s latest investors from its record-breaking funding round – over $6.6 billion – could soon come knocking for their money again if it doesn’t convert within two years.
Billionaire competitors are also concerned that Musk might be readying his potential powers with the incoming Trump administration. It’s reported that Musk has a particular issue with OpenAI’s CEO, Sam Altman, and has even labeled him “Swindly Sam” on X.
