Elon Musk’s latest attempt to keep Sam Altman from turning OpenAI for-profit has been blocked by a federal judge, but the trial has instead been fast tracked in the interest of the American public.
“Musk has not demonstrated likelihood of success on the merits” and does not have “the high burden required for a preliminary injunction,” U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers ruled on Tuesday, per Reuters. However, “given the public interest at stake and potential for harm if a conversion contrary to law occurred,” she noted the California trial could start as early as the fall.
The Grok boss sued the ChatGPT head (and another OpenAI co-founder) in August 2024, accusing Altman of betraying the artificial intelligence company’s founding principles — of which Musk was also a founder in 2015. He later stepped down from OpenAI’s board in 2018.
“This has always been about competition,” OpenAI shared in a statement with the AP. “Elon’s own emails show that he wanted to merge a for-profit OpenAI into Tesla. That would have been great for his personal benefit, but not for our mission or U.S. interests.”
Meanwhile, Musk’s attorney Marc Toberoff said, “We look forward to a jury confirming that Altman accepted Musk’s charitable contributions knowing full well they had to be used for the public’s benefit rather than his own enrichment.”
Last month, the Tesla billionaire said he would drop his $97.4 billion bid for the nonprofit if Altman agreed to ditch his plan to convert the company into a for-profit business.
“If OpenAI, Inc.’s Board is prepared to preserve the charity’s mission and stipulate to take the ‘for sale’ sign off its assets by halting its conversion, Musk will withdraw the bid,” his lawyers wrote in a court filing. “Otherwise, the charity must be compensated by what an arms-length buyer will pay for its assets.”
Altman ultimately denied the bid, but his board still had to consider it.
Musk previously joked OpenAI should change its name to “ClosedAI” in March of last year before saying in September, “You can’t just convert a non-profit into a for-profit. That is illegal.”
