Elon Musk and OpenAI have agreed to expedite their legal showdown, setting the stage for an autumn trial that could determine the future of the ChatGPT maker’s business model.
The latest court filing, submitted Friday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, confirms that both Musk and OpenAI jointly proposed a December trial date. However, they have yet to decide whether the case will be ruled by a jury or a judge.
This comes after a federal judge denied Musk’s request to pause OpenAI’s transition to a for-profit model but granted an expedited hearing on the lawsuit. “We welcome the court’s March 4 decision rejecting Elon Musk’s latest attempt to slow down OpenAI for his personal benefit,” OpenAI stated in a blog post on Friday.
Musk, who co-founded OpenAI with Sam Altman in 2015 before leaving the company, sued OpenAI and Altman last year, accusing them of abandoning the nonprofit’s original mission to develop AI for humanity rather than corporate profit.
Meanwhile, OpenAI and Altman deny Musk’s claims, arguing that the billionaire is simply trying to slow down a competitor while he builds his own AI venture, xAI.
At the core of the lawsuit is OpenAI’s transition to a for-profit model, which the company says is essential to attracting investors and competing in the multi-billion-dollar AI race.
OpenAI’s $6.6 billion funding round and an upcoming $40 billion investment under discussion with SoftBank depend on the company removing nonprofit control, a move Musk has legally challenged.
Musk, who now runs Tesla, SpaceX, and social media platform X, attempted to take control of OpenAI himself, leading a $97.4 billion unsolicited takeover bid, which Altman rejected outright with a simple “no thank you.”