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A federal judge signaled Tuesday that some parts of Elon Musk’s lawsuit attempting to block Sam Altman-led OpenAI from becoming a for-profit entity could go to trial – and said Musk would have to personally take the stand and testify.
Musk was seeking an injunction in US federal court in Oakland as part of a broader amended lawsuit in which Musk has accused OpenAI and key investor Microsoft of violating federal antitrust law in an illegal bid to dominate the AI marketplace.
“Something is going to trial in this case,” US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers said during the hearing. “(Elon Musk will) sit on the stand, present it to a jury, and a jury will decide who is right.”
In the lawsuit, Musk’s lawyers also accuse Altman and OpenAI of abandoning the original goal of developing AI to benefit humanity while transforming from a “tax-exempt charity to a $157 billion for-profit, market-paralyzing gorgon.”
Musk claims that both he and the public have suffered irreparable harm as a result and argues that OpenAI and Microsoft should be forced to divest any “ill-gotten” gains.
Rogers has yet to rule on the injunction, though she said Musk’s claim of irreparable harm was a “stretch” and that such requests face a high bar for approval.
Rogers once approved a preliminary injunction while overseeing Epic Games’ antitrust lawsuit against Apple in May 2021. The case eventually ended in a split verdict that mostly favored Apple.
OpenAI has sought to dismiss the lawsuit, referring to Musk’s claims as “baseless” and accused the world’s richest person of engaging in an “increasingly blusterous campaign to harass OpenAI for his own competitive advantage.”
The court fight is part of a months-long slugfest between Musk and Altman – who once collaborated to co-found OpenAI but have since become bitter rivals. Musk runs xAI, which directly competes with OpenAI.
As The Post reported, Musk gained an edge in the legal battle last month after the Justice Department and FTC sided with one of his lawsuit’s key arguments against OpenAI, Microsoft and billionaire Reid Hoffman, who are all listed as defendants.
Musk argued that OpenAI and Microsoft violated the Clayton Act by allowing Hoffman and another executive, Deannah Templeton, to simultaneously serve on the boards of OpenAI and Microsoft.
Section 8 of the Clayton Act prohibits so-called “interlocking directorates.”
The DOJ and FTC said they agreed with Musk’s legal argument.
Outside of the lawsuit, Musk and Altman recently traded barbs on social media after Musk threw shade on Altman’s plans to collaborate with Oracle executive chairman Larry Ellison and Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son on President Trump’s $500 billion “Stargate” AI infrastructure project.
Musk isn’t the only entity fighting to block OpenAI’s plans.
In December, Mark Zuckerberg-led Meta warned in a letter to California Attorney General Rob Bonta that allowing OpenAI to become a for-profit would have “seismic implications for Silicon Valley.”
“OpenAI should not be allowed to flout the law by taking and re-appropriating assets it built as a charity and using them for potentially enormous private gains,” Meta wrote in the letter.