Entrepreneur Elon Musk has initiated legal proceedings against OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, seeking damages of up to $109.4 billion. Musk, who is one of the co-founders of OpenAI, claims that he has been unfairly deprived of his share in the company despite significant early investments and contributions to its development. Representatives of OpenAI have denied these allegations, as reported by Bloomberg and other American news sources.
According to estimates from an expert hired by Musk's lawyers, he invested about $38 million in OpenAI and provided his business connections and expertise. Based on the current valuation of the company, he believes he is entitled to a share worth between $65.5 billion and $109.4 billion. Musk is also demanding from Microsoft, a key partner of OpenAI, an amount between $13 billion and $25 billion, claiming that this corporation has reaped the main benefits from the commercialization of artificial intelligence technologies.
In the lawsuit, Musk describes OpenAI's actions as a "gross violation" of the original concept under which the company was founded in 2015 as a non-profit project aimed at serving humanity. He points out that OpenAI is now acting in the interests of large business entities.
In response to the lawsuit, OpenAI stated that Musk had previously demanded full control over the organization and even proposed merging it with Tesla. After his departure in 2018, the company believes he is attempting to weaken the competitor of his AI startup xAI and chatbot Grok through the courts. The court has already dismissed the requests to close the case, and the trial is expected to begin in April.
