Elon Musk has been saying OpenAI abandoned its founding purpose as non-profit organization after accepting a multimillion-dollar investment from Microsoft. The CEO of Tesla also has asked the court to block the restructuring of the company led by Sam Altman to attract more investments (and that would finally leave its altruistic mission behind).

Far from standing idly by, OpenAI has brought to light old messages to launch their counterattack. The content of the exchanges suggests that Musk thought it was a good idea to have a for-profit arm in the startup’s early days. “It’s probably better to have a standard C corporation with a parallel nonprofit,” he said in November 2015.

Elon Musk wanted a for-profit arm in OpenAI, according to internal messages

Since OpenAI was publicly announced in 2015, the aforementioned message took place when the founding members, including Altman and Musk, were still outlining the path forward for the artificial intelligence (AI) startup. The company went a step further, posting a screenshot of a public benefit corporation they claim which Musk created in Delaware September 2017.

Email where Musk talks about a “standard C corporation”

That structure, interestingly, is similar to the one that OpenAI is trying to launch next year, and that the CEO of Tesla is looking to stop. The AI ​​startup adds a series of facts that it had repeated in the past: that Musk tried to take control of OpenAI and that he assured that the firm was destined to fail if it did not merge with Tesla. Musk stepped away from OpenAI in 2018 and founded his own AI startup, xAI, in 2023.

Screenshot of the corporation

It remains to be seen what will happen next, but there is no doubt that we are witnessing one of the most high-profile legal confrontations in the technology sector. On the one hand, there is the richest man in the world, and on the other, the leading artificial intelligence company. OpenAI, which has received approximately $13 billion from Microsoft, needs more money to move forward.

One move to attract new investors is to carry out its restructuring, which would free it from control of its non-profit entity. Now, if Musk’s efforts succeed, justice could suspend this long-awaited step. It should be noted that Musk has also accused OpenAI of trying to eliminate competition, and is trying to prevent the firm from entering into agreements that prevent its investors from investing in other AI firms.

Images | Village Global | Trevor Cokley