OpenAI feud between Elon Musk, Sam Altman faces federal judge

A federal judge weighed in Tuesday on a long-brewing legal feud between billionaires Elon Musk and Sam Altman over OpenAI, suggesting she’s unlikely to halt the company’s plan to restructure for now.

A federal judge weighed in Tuesday on a long-brewing legal feud between billionaires Elon Musk and Sam Altman over OpenAI, the company they co-founded, suggesting she’s unlikely to halt the company’s plan to restructure for now. 

Musk, a top ally to President Donald Trump and CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, is looking to stop the Microsoft-backed artificial intelligence AI developer from becoming a for-profit company. He has accused OpenAI of becoming a “closed source, profit-maximizer,” and he sued the company last year, first in a California court and later in federal court.

In a courtroom in Oakland, California, on Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers said that “it is a stretch [for Musk] to claim irreparable harm in this case,” adding that it’s a battle of “billionaires versus billionaires.” 

Musk is requesting a preliminary injunction, which would stall OpenAI’s conversion. Gonzalez Rogers didn’t immediately rule on the matter.

Musk, who didn’t appear at the hearing Tuesday, was among a handful of co-founders of OpenAI in 2015. He invested $45 million in the startup between then and 2018, his lawyer said Tuesday. But he and Altman had a falling out, with much of their feud publicly playing out online. In 2023, Musk launched xAI — his own rival to OpenAI — further escalating the tension between them. Musk added xAI as a plaintiff in the case last year.

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/openai-elon-musk-sam-altman-hearing-rcna190721

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