Elon Musk has sought damages of $79B-$134B from OpenAI (OPENAI) and Microsoft (MSFT) over allegations that the ChatGPT maker defrauded him when it abandoned its founding nonprofit roots last year.
As calculated by his expert witness, financial economist C. Paul Wazzan, Musk’s lawyer argued in a court filing on Friday that the Tesla (TSLA) CEO is entitled to a portion of OpenAI’s (OPENAI) current $500B valuation.
Detailing reasons for the claims, he alleged that OpenAI (OPENAI) and Microsoft (MSFT) wrongfully gained $65.5B–$109.4B and $13.3B–$25.1B, respectively, from Musk’s contributions to the AI startup when he co-founded the company in 2015.
“Just as an early investor in a startup company may realize gains many orders of magnitude greater than the investor’s initial investment, the wrongful gains that OpenAI and Microsoft have earned—and which Mr. Musk is now entitled to disgorge—are much larger than Mr. Musk’s initial contributions,” the filing states.
Musk, who departed OpenAI’s (OPENAI) board in 2018 to launch his own AI company, xAI (X.AI), in 2023, has filed a lawsuit alleging that the Sam Altman-led firm violated its founding mission when it switched to a for-profit business in October, giving the longtime backer Microsoft (MSFT) a 27% stake.
OpenAI (OPENAI) has called the suit “baseless” and part of Musk’s “ongoing pattern of harassment” against the company. Microsoft (MSFT) has declined to comment.
The billionaire investor filed for the damages days after a federal judge ruled that the case will head to a jury trial set for late April in Oakland, California.