'Looks like a case of sour grapes': Vinod Khosla takes a dig at Elon Musk over OpenAI lawsuit

Indian-American billionaire Vinod Khosla likened Elon Musk's move to sue OpenAI to "a case of sour grapes" becasue the Tesla chief did not get into the AI game early enough.

Musk, a cofounder of OpenAI who is no longer involved in the company, sued OpenAI and its Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman late Thursday, alleging the company’s close relationship with Microsoft Corp. has undermined its original mission of creating open-source technology that wouldn’t be subject to corporate priorities. 

Khosla was the first venture capitalist to invest in the ChatGPT-creator. OpenAI Chief Strategy Officer Jason Kwon pushed back at Musk’s suggestion that the startup is “a de facto subsidiary” of investor Microsoft and said the billionaire’s claims “may stem from Elon’s regrets about not being involved with the company today,” according to a copy of the memo obtained by Bloomberg News. 

In a separate memo, also seen by Bloomberg, Altman called Musk a hero of his and said he misses the person he knew who competed with others by building better technology. Musk is suing for breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty and claims of unfair business practices, among other grievances. He is bringing the suit in the capacity of a donor to OpenAI’s nonprofit parent organization as recently as 2019 and is seeking to force OpenAI to stop benefitting Microsoft and Altman personally.