Elon Musk wants to "remove" Altman

Elon Musk is escalating his legal pressure campaign against OpenAI to a new level—seeking not only to undo the company’s shift to a for-profit model, but also to directly remove CEO Sam Altman and President Greg Brockman from their leadership positions.

According to Bloomberg, on Tuesday Musk filed documents with the court, clearly stating that the goal of his lawsuit is to “undo OpenAI’s for-profit transformation and reorganization,” and asking the court to reinstate the company’s status as a nonprofit research organization.

This latest move comes just weeks before the trial by a jury of both sides is set to begin. OpenAI immediately pushed back on social media, saying Musk’s lawsuit is “nothing more than a harassment campaign driven by desires of self-interest, jealousy, and a wish to suppress a competitor.”

The filing was submitted on the day after OpenAI Chief Strategy Officer Jason Kwon urged the attorneys general of California and Delaware to investigate Musk. Kwon alleged that Musk may have “improper anti-competitive conduct,” attempting to obstruct OpenAI’s reorganization process. The legal and public-opinion battles between the two companies are heating up in parallel.

At the core of the demands: remove Altman; damages belong to the nonprofit division

In the filing, Musk laid out that the relief measures he is seeking are strictly tied to the original intent behind bringing the lawsuit. He said the relevant remedies are intended to “prevent a nonprofit division—from an organization he co-founded and that, in its early days, received major initial funding from him—being overridden by private for-profit interests.”

Notably, Musk also said that if he were to win the jury trial set for later this month, any compensation awarded should all go to OpenAI’s nonprofit division, rather than being taken by him personally. Previously, Musk said he planned to seek up to $134 billion in claims against OpenAI and Microsoft.

Long-simmering grievances against a former partner

Musk and Altman co-founded OpenAI in 2015, but their relationship has since completely soured. Musk left OpenAI’s board in 2018, and in 2023 he co-founded the artificial intelligence company xAI, which has become one of OpenAI’s main competitors.

In February this year, OpenAI rejected Musk’s offer to acquire the nonprofit holding entity’s assets for $97.4 billion. In the months that followed, OpenAI completed its for-profit reorganization, paving the way for additional financing and a potential listing. Musk then filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft, arguing that, after the company accepted tens of billions of dollars in investment from Microsoft and advanced the reorganization, it had deviated from its original nonprofit mission.

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