OpenAI dismisses Elon Musk’s lawsuit as “harassment tactic”

Artificial intelligence company OpenAI has pushed back at xAI CEO Musk’s recent lawsuit, calling it part of an “ongoing harassment campaign” to undermine its ￰0￱ ChatGPT maker released a statement with emails, X posts, court filings, and opinionated articles to shun Elon Musk’s legal charges against ￰1￱ to the firm, the xAI head has no grounds to accuse OpenAI of trade secret theft, and this is one case among several attempts to slow down the company’s progress in the AI industry. “We will protect our employees and won’t be intimidated by his attempts to bully them,” the OpenAI newsroom ￰2￱ fights against Musk’s lawsuits OpenAI has rejected allegations that it had stolen employees or confidential information from Musk’s AI startup, ￰3￱ AI company also argued that the business structure change lawsuit, which has paused its plan to change from a non-profit to a for-profit organization, was just Elon’s way to generate headlines and not his legitimate grievances.

“Elon’s nonstop actions against us are just bad-faith tactics to slow down OpenAI and seize control of the leading AI innovations for his personal benefit,” the company said. “He’s been spreading false information about us. We’re building the best-equipped nonprofit the world has ever seen; we’re not converting it away.” The firm accused Musk of abandoning OpenAI’s mission years ago, noting that he had once sought to merge the project with Tesla to give himself control over its direction. Elon’s never been about the mission.

He’s always had his own ￰4￱ tried to seize control of OpenAI and merge it with Tesla as a for-profit – his own emails prove ￰5￱ he didn’t get his way, he stormed ￰6￱ is undoubtedly one of the greatest entrepreneurs of our… — OpenAI Newsroom (@OpenAINewsroom) April 9, 2025 According to OpenAI, when the company considered transitioning to a for-profit model in 2017, Tesla’s CEO reportedly demanded majority ownership, control of the board, and the chief executive ￰7￱ OpenAI resisted, citing the need to avoid any single person holding absolute control, Musk allegedly withheld funding he had promised to ￰8￱ Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn, stepped in to cover employee salaries and keep the operation ￰9￱ early 2018, Musk forwarded emails suggesting Tesla could serve as OpenAI’s financial engine as the “only path” to compete with Google’s ￰10￱ emails showed Musk believed even Tesla’s resources gave it only a small chance of counterbalancing Google.

“Even raising several hundred million won’t be ￰11￱ needs billions per year immediately, or forget it,” one of the emails ￰12￱ to dismiss illegal hiring practices claims OpenAI has also filed a motion to dismiss Musk’s lawsuit on its hiring practices, propounding that it lawfully recruits top researchers, engineers, and developers from every part of the industry. “Unable to match OpenAI’s innovation, xAI has filed this groundless trade secret lawsuit,” the defense filing stated. “To be clear: OpenAI does not need or want anyone’s, much less xAI’s, trade secrets to achieve OpenAI’s mission.” The company accused Musk of attempting to intimidate staff and discourage those who would want to defect from his AI venture by turning legal action into a public relations ￰13￱ for OpenAI coined the complaint “lawfare” meant to overwhelm the company with ￰14￱ addition to trade secret claims, xAI has raised concerns over OpenAI’s collaboration with Apple, insisting that integrating ChatGPT into certain iPhone features constitutes anticompetitive conduct.

OpenAI’s attorneys dismissed the argument, saying xAI had not shown any measurable harm that would require antitrust laws to step in. “xAI has not alleged any non-speculative harm rising directly out of ChatGPT’s integration as an option for certain features on certain ￰15￱ certainly not the kind of unlawful harm targeted by antitrust law,” the attorneys ￰16￱ surpasses SpaceX in valuation The legal battle comes at a time when OpenAI’s market value has reportedly crossed SpaceX, the rocket company Musk has spent two decades ￰17￱ to The New York Times, OpenAI completed a deal that allows current and former employees to sell shares at a $500 billion ￰18￱ $6.6 billion worth of stock changed hands in the transaction, sources familiar with the matter ￰19￱ included Thrive Capital, SoftBank Group, Dragoneer Investment Group, Abu Dhabi’s MGX, and ￰20￱ ￰21￱ smartest crypto minds already read our ￰22￱ in?

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