Musk is asking the federal court to stop Open artificial intelligence from transitioning into a fully for-profit venture.
Lawyers representing Musk, his artificial intelligence startup xAI and former OpenAI board member Shivon Zilis filed for a preliminary injunction against OpenAI on Friday. The ban will also prevent OpenAI from allegedly asking its investors not to provide funds to competitors such as xAI.
The latest court filings show that Musk, OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman, as well as other long-time players and backers including tech investors Reid Hoffman and Microsoft.
Muskzen initial prosecution OpenAI filed the lawsuit in San Francisco state court in March 2024 and later withdrew the complaint and It was refiled months later in federal court. Musk’s lawyer IIn a federal lawsuit led by Marc Toberoff of Los Angeles, OpenAI violated federal racketeering laws (RICO).
In mid-November, they expanded their complaint to accuse Microsoft and OpenAI of violating antitrust laws when Chat GPT maker OpenAI allegedly asked investors to agree not to invest in rival companies, including Musk’s latest startup, xAI.
“Elon’s fourth attempt, again repeating the same baseless complaint, remains No advantages at all“, an OpenAI spokesperson said in a statement.
Microsoft declined to comment.
Musk also asked the court to limit undue commercial advantages derived from OpenAI’s close relationship with Microsoft, its main backer and partner.
OpenAI has become one of the biggest startups in recent years, and ChatGPT has become a big hit, helping usher in Huge corporate enthusiasm Beyond artificial intelligence and related large-scale language models.
Since Musk announced xAI debut In July 2023, his new artificial intelligence business launched the Grok chatbot and raised up to $6 billion at a $50 billion valuation, in part to purchase 100,000 bots NVIDIA Chip, CNBC report earlier this month.
“Microsoft and OpenAI now seek to solidify this dominance by cutting off competitors’ access to investment capital (a collective boycott), while continuing the competitive nature shared over the years from the formative years of generative AI,” the lawyers wrote in a statement. benefit from sensitive information.
The lawyers wrote that the terms OpenAI required investors to agree to amounted to a “collective boycott” and “prevented xAI from obtaining necessary investment capital.”
The lawyers later added that OpenAI “cannot be Frankenstein-like, lumbering around in the marketplace, serving Microsoft’s pecuniary interests regardless of corporate form.”
In July, Microsoft gave up observer seat OpenAI’s board of directors, despite CNBC reporting that the Federal Trade Commission will continue to monitor both companies’ influence on the artificial intelligence industry.
OpenAI initially debuted as a nonprofit in 2015 before transitioning to a so-called capped profit model in 2019, in which the OpenAI nonprofit is Management entity as its for-profit subsidiary. It is transforming into an entirely for-profit public benefit corporation, which could make it more attractive to investors. According to previous reports by CNBC, the reorganization plan will also allow OpenAI to retain its non-profit status as an independent entity. report.
Microsoft has invested nearly $14 billion in OpenAI, which it disclosed as part of its fiscal first-quarter earnings in October Report it will Recorded $1.5 billion in losses In the current period, it is mainly due to expected loss From OpenAI.
October, OpenAI Completed a major financing round The new startup is valued at $157 billion. Thrive Capital led the round, with investors including Microsoft and Nvidia also participating.
OpenAI faces challenges from startups such as xAI, Anthropic and others such as Google. The generative artificial intelligence market is Expected to exceed US$1 trillion Revenue and enterprise spending on generative AI over ten years Soared 500% this yearAccording to the latest data from Menlo Ventures.
CNBC reached out to Musk’s attorney on Saturday. They did not respond to requests for comment.
—CNBC’s Hayden Field contributed reporting
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