Elon Musk and OpenAI have found a sliver of common ground amid their ongoing legal battle. Both sides have agreed to expedite the trial for their dispute over OpenAI’s for-profit transition.
In a Friday court filing, the Tesla CEO and OpenAI proposed holding a trial in December and to defer a decision on whether a jury will hear the case.
Musk, who cofounded OpenAI alongside CEO Sam Altman, has been at odds with the company since he left its board of directors in 2018.
He made the feud official last year when he first filed a lawsuit against OpenAI in a California state court. He later withdrew that suit and filed a new one in federal court in August last year, claiming that OpenAI “betrayed” its mission when it added a for-profit arm in 2019 and then again when it deepened its partnership with Microsoft in 2023.
Earlier this month, a judge denied Musk’s bid to stop Altman from converting OpenAI into a fully for-profit entity, but agreed that other areas of the lawsuit could be expedited to trial in the fall.
US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers dismissed Musk’s request for an injunction on OpenAI’s restructuring, calling it “extraordinary and rarely granted,” but added that the court was prepared to expedite a trial over “interrelated contract-based claims” due to the “public interest at stake.”
OpenAI declined to comment. In a blog post on Friday, however, the company said it welcomed the decision and looked forward to presenting its case in court against Musk’s “baseless, cynically self-serving lawsuit.”
“We fully intend to (1) keep the non-profit as a crucial part of our work to achieve our mission, and (2) make sure it’s not just supported by a successful business, but in a stronger position than ever,” OpenAI wrote.
Musk was part of a group that launched a $97.4 billion takeover bid for the company in February that Altman immediately shot down.
“Probably his whole life is from a position of insecurity. I feel for the guy,” Altman said in an interview on the sidelines of the Paris AI Action Summit. “I don’t think he’s a happy person. I do feel for him.”
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