South Africa-born billionaire Elon Musk plans to proceed with his highly watched lawsuit against OpenAI, his lawyer Marc Toberoff said on Monday, hours after the AI startup dialled back its earlier plan to remove control by its non-profit arm.
Under OpenAI's newly proposed plan, its non-profit parent would continue to control the for-profit business and become a major shareholder.
"Nothing in today’s announcement changes the fact that OpenAI will still be developing closed-source AI for the benefit of Altman, his investors, and Microsoft," Toberoff said in a statement.
"The announcement obscures critical details about the supposed 'non-profit control' arrangement, and particularly the sharply reduced ownership stake the non-profit will receive in Altman’s for-profit enterprise."
Musk has been fighting in court to block OpenAI's transition from its non-profit control, taking the high-profile company he co-founded and now competes with into a lengthy legal fight.
Other big companies such as Meta and prominent figures, including Nobel Prize winner Geoffrey Hinton known as the godfather of AI, have joined critics urging regulators to block OpenAI's restructuring. A jury trial had been scheduled for March 2026.
"Elon continuing with his baseless lawsuit only proves that it was always a bad-faith attempt to slow us down," a spokesperson for OpenAI said in a statement.
Reuters
Elon Musk to go ahead with lawsuit against OpenAI despite nonprofit control statement: lawyer
Image: REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
South Africa-born billionaire Elon Musk plans to proceed with his highly watched lawsuit against OpenAI, his lawyer Marc Toberoff said on Monday, hours after the AI startup dialled back its earlier plan to remove control by its non-profit arm.
Under OpenAI's newly proposed plan, its non-profit parent would continue to control the for-profit business and become a major shareholder.
"Nothing in today’s announcement changes the fact that OpenAI will still be developing closed-source AI for the benefit of Altman, his investors, and Microsoft," Toberoff said in a statement.
"The announcement obscures critical details about the supposed 'non-profit control' arrangement, and particularly the sharply reduced ownership stake the non-profit will receive in Altman’s for-profit enterprise."
Musk has been fighting in court to block OpenAI's transition from its non-profit control, taking the high-profile company he co-founded and now competes with into a lengthy legal fight.
Other big companies such as Meta and prominent figures, including Nobel Prize winner Geoffrey Hinton known as the godfather of AI, have joined critics urging regulators to block OpenAI's restructuring. A jury trial had been scheduled for March 2026.
"Elon continuing with his baseless lawsuit only proves that it was always a bad-faith attempt to slow us down," a spokesperson for OpenAI said in a statement.
Reuters
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