OpenAI countersues Elon Musk over ‘unlawful harassment’ of company

The ChatGPT developer OpenAI has countersued Elon Musk, accusing the billionaire of harassment and asking a US federal judge to stop him from “any further unlawful and unfair action” against the company.

OpenAI was co-founded by Musk and its chief executive, Sam Altman, in 2015. However, the two men have been at loggerheads for years over its direction as it transitions from a complex non-profit structure into a more traditional for-profit business.

Musk sued OpenAI over its restructuring plans about a year ago, accusing it of betraying its foundational mission by putting the pursuit of profit ahead of the benefit of humanity. He dropped the suit in June, but then filed a fresh one in August.

In February this year he led a consortium of investors in a surprise $97.4bn bid for the company. Altman quickly rejected the bid, writing on X: “no thank you but we will buy twitter for $9.74 billion if you want.” Musk bought Twitter, since rebranded as X, in 2022 for $44bn.

In documents filed at a district court in California this week, OpenAI said: “Through press attacks, malicious campaigns broadcast to Musk’s more than 200 million followers on the social media platform he controls, a pretextual demand for corporate records, harassing legal claims, and a sham bid for OpenAI’s assets, Musk has tried every tool available to harm OpenAI.”

The company asked the judge to stop Musk from any further attacks, as well as “be held responsible for the damage he has already caused”. A jury trial is expected to begin in spring 2026.

Musk left OpenAI in 2018 and the world’s richest man started his own company called xAI. The bid for OpenAI this year was backed by xAI and several investment firms, including one run by Jon Lonsdale, who co-founded the spy technology company Palantir.

The Tesla boss has openly accused OpenAI of abandoning its original charitable mission by establishing a for-profit subsidiary to raise money from investors, such as Microsoft. OpenAI, which was founded as a non-profit with the aim of safely building futuristic AI that helped humanity, has argued the new model is necessary to develop the best AI models.

Last month OpenAI raised $40bn in a funding round from SoftBank and other investors which valued the company at $300bn. The company has said it plans to use the money to “push the frontiers of AI research even further” and develop its computer infrastructure to deliver more powerful tools for the estimated 500 million people who use ChatGPT every week.

OpenAI has had several corporate dramas since ChatGPT went viral in 2022. In 2023 the board sacked Altman over an alleged failure to be “candid in his communications”. He was reinstated less than a week later after many at the company threatened to resign unless he returned to his role.