Elon Musk moves to remove Sam Altman as OpenAI calls lawsuit ‘harassment’

Elon Musk in a recent development, has escalated a legal battle with Sam Altman by amending a lawsuit against OpenAI.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the founder of xAI is now seeking the removal of CEO Sam Altman’s from the OpenAI non-profit's board in a recent amendment.

Moreover, the amendment also mentioned the removal of President Greg Brockman from his role in the tech company as a part of a lawsuit.

In a significant pivot to his ongoing legal battle, Musk has also requested that any potential damages be redirected to the organization’s charitable arm instead of his own pockets.

This latest manoeuvre underscores the deepening rift between the two tech icons, with a trial looming later this month in Oakland, California.

The CEO of SpaceX is seeking more than $150 billion in damages from OpenAI and Microsoft on the grounds of key allegations. According to Musk, the company has ditched its original mandate to develop open-source Artificial General Intelligence (AGI).

Musk also alleged that he was being tricked into providing early funding worth $38 million under the guise of a nonprofit structure that was shifted toward a commercial and profit-based model.

“Plaintiff will seek an order removing Altman as a director from the OpenAI nonprofit board and removing both Altman and Brockman as officers of the OpenAI for-profit company,” Musk’s lawyers said in Tuesday’s filing.

“Removal of a charity’s officers and directors is a common remedy where those individuals fail to protect or carry out the charity’s public mission,” the statement read.

Musk's lawyer, Marc Toberoff, said, “He is asking the court to return everything that was taken from a public charity—and to make sure the people responsible are never in a position to do this again.

OpenAI’s response

Taking to X, the OpenAI issued a statement on its official newsroom platform, “Today, at the eleventh hour, Elon lodged a court filing pretending to change his tune about attacking the nonprofit OpenAI Foundation.”

It added, “The truth is that this case has always been about Elon generating more power and more money for what he wants. Having increasingly realized that his attempt to damage the nonprofit OpenAI Foundation rests on a baseless legal case, Elon is once again trying to change the narrative and save face as the trial approaches.”

The company also slammed Elon Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI as nothing more than a “harassment campaign that's driven by ego, jealousy and a desire to slow down a competitor.”