Musk's Claim against OpenAI May go to Trial In Part, Judge Says
Musk takes legal action against to block OpenAI's conversion to a for-profit structure
Musk cofounded OpenAI with Altman in 2015
OpenAI argues for-profit relocation required for capital
Nonprofit to for-profit conversion uncommon, says
(Adds judge did not decide whether or not to provide the injunction in paragraph 5, OpenAi's legal representatives' comment in paragraph 13)
By Anna Tong and Akash Sriram
OAKLAND, Calif., Feb 4 (Reuters) - A federal judge said on Tuesday that parts of Elon Musk's claim against OpenAI to halt its conversion to a for-profit entity might go to trial, adding that the Tesla CEO will need to appear in court and testify.
"Something is going to trial in this case," U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in Oakland, California, said early in the court session.
"(Elon Musk will) rest on the stand, present it to a jury, and a jury will choose who is right." Rogers was considering Musk's current request for a preliminary injunction to obstruct OpenAI's conversion before going to trial, the current relocation in an animosity match between the world's wealthiest individual and wikitravel.org OpenAI CEO Sam Altman that is playing out publicly in court.
Rogers did not choose whether to release the injunction Tuesday, but at one point recommended that Musk's legal group had not provided sufficient proof for her to release the injunction, bphomesteading.com and showed she might hold an evidentiary hearing, where both sides could present witnesses and evidence. The last time Rogers offered an initial injunction remained in Epic Games' case against Apple in May 2021.
Musk cofounded OpenAI with Altman in 2015, but left before the business took off and subsequently founded the competing AI start-up xAI in 2023. OpenAI is now trying to shift from a nonprofit into a for-profit entity, which it says it requires to do to secure the capital required to establish the very best expert system designs. In 2015, Musk submitted a claim against OpenAI and Altman, stating that OpenAI ´ s founders initially approached him to fund a nonprofit focused on developing AI to benefit mankind, however that it is now concentrated on earning money. He later on expanded the claim to include federal antitrust and other claims, and in December asked the judge commanding the case to stop OpenAI from transitioning to a for-profit.
In response to Musk ´ s claim, bphomesteading.com OpenAI has said it will relocate to dismiss Musk ´ s claims and that Musk "should be contending in the market rather than the courtroom." The stakes on OpenAI's business transition have now intensified, as OpenAI ´ s last fundraising round of $6.6 billion and annunciogratis.net a brand-new round of as much as $25 billion under discussion with SoftBank are conditioned on the business reorganizing to eliminate the not-for-profit ´ s manage.
During the hearing, OpenAI's legal representatives said the reason to enable OpenAI to end up being a for-profit entity is because it would be required to help with the objective of the nonprofit.
Such a restructuring would be extremely unusual, said Rose Chan Loui, executive director of the UCLA Law Center for Philanthropy and garagesale.es Nonprofits. Nonprofit conversions to for-profits have historically been for healthcare companies like healthcare facilities, not endeavor capital-backed companies, she said. (Reporting by Anna Tong in Oakland and Akash Sriram in Bengaluru, Editing by Marguerita Choy)