Sam Altman, the owner of OpenAI and ChatGPT, has accused its co-founder turned competitor, Elon Musk, of attempting to harm his business in a new counter lawsuit.
Altman charged Musk with unethical and dishonest business tactics, saying that the tech billionaire’s February $97.375 billion offer to buy it out was a “sham bid” that was specifically meant to obstruct OpenAI’s fundraising efforts.
“Through press attacks, malicious campaigns broadcast to Musk’s more than 200 million followers on the social media platform he controls [X], 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,” read the lawsuit.
In addition, Musk’s $97.375 billion bid to buy the AI company was allegedly fabricated in order to obtain an unfair competitive edge, according to OpenAI’s countersuit.
“Musk has engaged in these efforts to slow OpenAI’s progress and impair its ability to compete effectively in an increasingly crowded field, but also to seize and maintain for xAI an unearned edge designed to impair competition more broadly for the sole benefit of Musk’s xAI, at the expense of the public interest,” alleges OpenAI.
Recall that in the month of February, Altman turned down a $97.4 billion bid to take over his company, OpenAI, by a consortium of investors led by Musk.
The X owner said it had offered $97.4 billion to buy the nonprofit that controls OpenAI, in a move that comes months after he sued the artificial intelligence company.
In a statement, Musk, who founded OpenAI in 2015 but left in 2018, said, “It’s time for OpenAI to return to the open-source, safety-focused force it once was.”
Marc Toberoff, Musk’s lawyer, also acknowledged that he presented the board with his offer for “all assets” of the tech company—a move that is likely to intensify long-standing tensions with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.
However, the $97.4 billion bid, which is meant to block the artificial intelligence company from transforming into a for-profit firm, was vehemently rejected by Altman.
On Musk’s social media site X (formerly Twitter), Altman responded to the bid by writing, “No thank you, but if you want, we can buy Twitter for $9.74 billion.”
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