Elon Musk is seeking to remove OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and President Greg Brockman from their leadership roles as part of an ongoing legal dispute with the artificial intelligence firm. Court documents filed on Tuesday reveal that Musk’s legal team is pushing to strip the two executives of their positions and any personal financial gains derived from what they describe as OpenAI’s “illicit for-profit operations.”
Musk co-founded OpenAI in 2015, contributing $38 million with the understanding that the company would operate as a nonprofit dedicated to open research and the safe development of artificial intelligence. However, he alleges that OpenAI has since restructured in a way that prioritizes profit over its original mission. The company, now valued at $852 billion, operates as a nonprofit that holds a 26% stake in its for-profit arm, which includes the widely used ChatGPT.
The lawsuit, originally filed in 2024, accuses OpenAI of defrauding Musk by deviating from its founding principles. Musk’s lawyers argue that the company must honor its commitments to “safety-first AI development and open research for the benefit of humanity.” They also seek damages, which would be directed to OpenAI’s nonprofit arm. The case is scheduled for trial later this month.
OpenAI has dismissed Musk’s allegations as “wholly unfounded” and suggested that he is attempting to undermine the company’s reputation. The AI firm has also accused Musk of collaborating with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to weaken competition in the sector.
Musk left OpenAI in 2018 following disagreements with Altman. He later acquired Twitter (now X) in 2022 and launched his own AI company, xAI, in 2023. Both xAI and OpenAI have since secured agreements with the U.S. Pentagon to integrate their AI tools into classified military systems. Altman stated that OpenAI agreed to cooperate only under the condition that its tools would not be used for mass surveillance or fully autonomous weapons.
The dispute comes amid broader tensions between tech companies and the U.S. military over the ethical use of AI. Anthropic, another major AI firm, has faced similar challenges after refusing to remove safeguards from its Claude model, which the Pentagon deemed too powerful for public use. The Department of Defense has labeled Anthropic a supply chain risk, citing national security concerns.
The legal battle between Musk and OpenAI underscores the growing friction between the rapid commercialization of AI and the ethical responsibilities of its developers. As the trial approaches, the outcome could have significant implications for the future governance of artificial intelligence.
