The dramatic tiff between Openai and its estranged co-founder billionaire Elon Musk shows no signs of disappointment.
In his application Wednesday, Openai and other defendants’ lawyers, including CEO Sam Altman, sought Musk will be banned from “full illegal and unfair behavior” and “being liable for the damage he has already caused.”
“Openai is resilient,” reads the countersuit application. “However, Musk’s actions have been sacrificed. If his campaign continues, he is threatened by his open ability in the service of his mission, his relationships essential to fostering that mission, and his continued attacks on Musks of the public interest (…), and more recently (a) a fake buyback bid designed to sabotage Openai’s future.”
In an email statement, Mask’s lawyer Mark Toberov said, “You’ve seen how serious it was because an open board (a mask bid for company nonprofits earlier this year).
Elon’s non-stop action against us is a bad faith tactic to slow Openai and take control of major AI innovations for his personal gain. Today we rebutted to stop him.
– Openai Newsroom (@openainewsroom) April 9, 2025
Musk’s lawsuit against Openai blames the startup for abandoning its non-profit mission aimed at benefiting all humanity. Openai was founded as a nonprofit in 2015, but in 2019 it was converted into a “capped for-profit” structure, and now its management is trying to restructure it into a public benefit corporation.
Musk had sought a preliminary injunction to halt the move to open to for-profit organizations. In March, a federal judge refused the request, but allowed him to go to a ju trial in spring 2026.
Once a key supporter of Openai, Musk is probably its great enemy. Openai’s interests are high, and it is reportedly necessary to complete the conversion of the for-profit organization by 2025 or abandon some of the capital it has raised in recent months.
A group of organizations, including nonprofits and labor groups, including California Teamsters, petitioned California Attorney General Rob Bonta this week to stop the Open from becoming a for-profit organization. They are actively pursuing that the company “failed to protect its charitable assets” and “submitting charity envoys to promote safe artificial intelligence.”
Encode, a nonprofit organization that co-hosts California’s ill-fated SB 1047 AI Safety Act, raised similar concerns in an Amicus brief filed in December.
Openai says its conversion will keep the non-profit sector infusing resources that will be spent on “charity initiatives” in areas such as healthcare, education and science.
“We are actually preparing to build the best equipment nonprofit the world has ever seen, and we’re not steering it away,” the company wrote in a series of posts on Wednesday on X. “Elon never had a mission. He always had his own agenda.”
This story has been updated to add comments from Musk’s lawyer.