Bipasha Dey
Jan 17 (Reuters) – Elon Musk is seeking up to $134 billion from OpenAI and Microsoft, saying he should receive “improper gains” from his early support of the artificial intelligence startup, according to court documents filed on Friday.
OpenAI received between $65.5 billion and $109.4 billion, while Microsoft received between $13.3 billion and $25.1 billion, from donations the billionaire entrepreneur made when he co-founded OpenAI in 2015, Musk said in federal court filings ahead of the two companies’ trials.
Lawyers for OpenAI, Microsoft and Musk did not immediately respond to requests for comment outside business hours. OpenAI called the lawsuit “baseless” and part of Musk’s “harassment” campaign. A lawyer for Microsoft said there was no evidence that the company “aided and abetted” OpenAI.
Musk, who left OpenAI in 2018 and now runs xAI alongside its rival chatbot Grok, claims that ChatGPT operator OpenAI violated its founding mission by high-profile restructuring into a for-profit entity.
A judge in Oakland, California, ruled this month that a jury will hear the trial, which is expected to begin in April.
Musk’s filings say he contributed about $38 million, or 60% of OpenAI’s early seed funding, to help recruit employees, connect founders with key contacts and lend credibility to the project as it was created.
“Just as early investors in a startup company may receive returns that are many orders of magnitude greater than their initial investment, OpenAI and Microsoft may have received unjust gains that Mr. Musk is now entitled to return that were significantly greater than Mr. Musk’s original contributions,” Musk argued.
Musk’s contributions to OpenAI and Microsoft were calculated by his expert witness, financial economist C. Paul Wazzan, the filing said.
If a jury finds either company liable, Musk could seek punitive damages and other penalties, including a possible injunction, the filing said, without specifying what form an injunction might take.
(Reporting by Bipasha Dey in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Mike Scarcella in Washington; Editing by William Mallard)
