Elon Musk seeks removal of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman as trial looms

ELON Musk is seeking to have OpenAI chief executive officer and board member Sam Altman removed from his roles at the artificial intelligence startup as part of the billionaire’s legal challenge to the ChatGPT maker’s conversion to a for-profit company.

Musk said in a Tuesday court filing that the goal of his lawsuit is to “unwind OpenAI’s for-profit conversation and restructuring,” which he said would involve removing Altman and President Greg Brockman from their leadership positions. He is also seeking a court order restoring the firm’s status as a nonprofit research organisation.

The world’s richest person also said in the filing he wants any damages he may win when he faces off with Altman and OpenAI at a jury trial starting later this month to be awarded to the startup’s charitable arm.

“The remedies Musk intends to seek are strictly tied to his purpose in bringing this lawsuit: to prevent the subordination of a public charity — one he co-founded and for which he was the primary supporter during its formative years — to private, for-profit interests,” he said in the filing.

Musk is suing OpenAI and Microsoft over claims that the startup abandoned its founding mission when it took billions of dollars in backing from the software stalwart and planned its restructuring. Previously, Musk indicated that he planned to seek as much as US$134 billion in damages from OpenAI and Microsoft.

Musk’s filing was reported earlier by the Wall Street Journal. OpenAI didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The filing comes a day after Jason Kwon, chief strategy officer at OpenAI, urged the attorneys general of California and Delaware to investigate Musk for potential “improper and anti-competitive behaviour” in his efforts to block the firm’s restructuring.

Musk co-founded OpenAI with Altman and others in 2015, but the former business partners have become bitter foes in recent years. Musk left OpenAI’s board in 2018 and in 2023 co-founded the artificial intelligence company xAI, which has become one of OpenAI’s main rivals.

Last February, OpenAI rejected Musk’s unsolicited bid to acquire the assets of the nonprofit that controls the company for US$97.4 billion. Months later, the company completed its for-profit restructuring plan, paving the way for it raise more capital and potentially go public.

Altman has denounced Musk’s lawsuit challenging the OpenAI restructuring as a weaponisation of the legal system to slow down a competitor. REUTERS