Earlier this year, Elon Musk started a legal battle against OpenAI, the parent company of ChatGPT. The current owner of X and co-founder of OpenAI is basing his arguments on Sam Altman’s change of company structure from operating as a non-profit to raising capital for “capped profit.” Now, Musk has amended his lawsuit against OpenAI to include Microsoft and the monopoly allegation.
Elon Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI amended to add Microsoft and monopoly accusation
The latest amendment, filed this week, claims that Microsoft and OpenAI are using monopolistic practices in order to affect other companies in the artificial intelligence segment. Musk also has an AI-based research and development company called xAI. Grok, an AI assistant available to X Premium subscribers, is xAI’s first product. Recent leaks suggest that xAI will be coming to free users soon, but nothing has been confirmed yet.
“As a result of their unlawful actions, defendants have been unjustly enriched to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars in value, while Mr Musk has been conned along with the public,” reads the amendment. Interestingly, the document also lists as a defendant Reid Hoffman, a co-founder of LinkedIn.
The lawsuits began in March; there was already an amendment in August
Musk’s original lawsuit, filed in March 2024, argued that the partnership with Microsoft turned OpenAI into “a closed-source de facto subsidiary” of the Redmond giant. According to reports, Microsoft has invested at least $10 billion in OpenAI. However, OpenAI appears to maintain individuality in its management. Recently, the company launched its first ChatGPT client for Windows, months after its launch on Mac. Microsoft would surely have preferred to launch it first on its OS.
Elon Musk had also accused Sam Altman of “rampant self-dealing” for changing the financial structure of OpenAI. The latter responded to the accusations by stating that the owner of X agreed to change to a for-profit structure. OpenAI even claimed that Musk at one point sought “absolute control” of the company.
A previous amendment in August argued that Sam Altman “manipulated” Musk into financially supporting OpenIA. The X owner’s defense claimed that the company’s non-profit structure was what convinced him to fund it.