ZeroHedge.com<\/p>\n
Elon Musk\u2019s lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft has evolved into a high-stakes dispute over whether OpenAI stayed true to the mission it was founded on or quietly outgrew it while relying on that original promise.<\/p>\n
Musk is seeking between $79 billion and $134 billion in damages, a figure derived from an expert valuation that treats his early funding and contributions as foundational to what OpenAI later became. While the number is enormous, the heart of the case is simpler:\u00a0Musk argues he helped create and fund a nonprofit dedicated to AI for the public good, and that OpenAI later abandoned that commitment in a way that amounted to fraud.<\/strong><\/p>\n According to Musk\u2019s filings, his roughly $38 million in early funding was not just a donation but the financial backbone of OpenAI\u2019s formative years, supplemented by recruiting help, strategic guidance, and credibility. His damages theory, prepared by financial economist C. Paul Wazzan, ties those early inputs to OpenAI\u2019s current valuation of around $500 billion.<\/p>\n The claim is framed as disgorgement rather than repayment, with Musk arguing that the vast gains realized by OpenAI and Microsoft flowed from a nonprofit story that attracted support and trust, only to be discarded once the company reached scale, according to\u00a0TechCrunch<\/a>.<\/p>\n Much of the public attention has centered on internal documents uncovered during discovery, particularly private notes from OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman in 2017.<\/strong><\/p>\n One line has become central to Musk\u2019s argument:\u00a0\u201cI cannot believe that we committed to non-profit if three months later we\u2019re doing b-corp then it was a lie.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n