On Friday, OpenAI said in a blog post, “We welcome the court's March 4 decision rejecting, opens new tab Elon Musk's latest attempt to slow down OpenAI for his personal benefit." Musk also co-founded OpenAI with Altman in 2015; however, he left the company before it even took off, and in response, he cofounded the startup xAI in 2023.
Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, sued OpenAI, and Sam Altman, raising accusations regarding OpenAI’s shift from its initial mission. The company started out as a way to develop a safer environment for humanity, not for corporate profit.
Yet, Sam Altman and OpenAI have denied those allegations, all while Altman alleges that Musk has been trying to slow down a competitor. More so, in the ongoing lawsuit, ChatGPT’s maker is at stake as it is transitioning to a for-profit model, marking an important point as it is raising more capital and competing well in the expensive AI race.
It is also worth mentioning that OpenAI’s last funding round of $6.6 billion, and a new round of up to $40 billion under discussion with SoftBank Group, are conditioned on OpenAI’s restructuring process of removing the non-profit’s control.