Elon Musk is seeking new court orders against OpenAI as his legal fight with the company moves closer to trial. The latest filing asks the court to remove Chief Executive Sam Altman and President Greg Brockman from leadership roles if Musk wins on his claims over OpenAI’s move to a for-profit structure.
However, OpenAI has rejected the request and called the lawsuit a campaign to disrupt a rival ahead of jury selection set for April 27 in Oakland, California.
Musk’s lawyers said in a Tuesday filing that he wants Altman removed from OpenAI’s nonprofit board and wants both Altman and Brockman removed as officers of OpenAI’s for-profit arm. The filing says those remedies would follow if a judge or jury finds that OpenAI and its executives defrauded Musk.
The filing also says Musk wants to "unwind OpenAI’s for-profit conversion and restructuring." In addition, he is asking the court to restore OpenAI as a nonprofit research group rather than let the current structure remain in place.
Musk is also seeking to direct any recovery from the case to OpenAI’s nonprofit side instead of to himself. Reports on the amended suit say he wants any "ill-gotten gains," including benefits tied to the restructuring, returned to the nonprofit entity.
OpenAI responded publicly after the filing and said Musk was "pretending to change his tune about attacking the nonprofit OpenAI Foundation." The company also said the lawsuit remains "nothing more than a harassment campaign."
In its statement, OpenAI said the case is driven by "ego, jealousy, and a desire to slow down a competitor." The company said Musk’s legal action is not about protecting OpenAI’s mission but about gaining power in the artificial intelligence sector.
The company has also taken action with regulators. Reportedly, OpenAI asked the attorneys general of California and Delaware to investigate what it called "improper and anti-competitive behavior" by Musk and his associates ahead of trial.
The case comes from Musk’s 2024 lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft. Musk, who helped found OpenAI in 2015 and left in 2018, says the company moved away from its original nonprofit mission after taking major outside investment and changing its structure.
OpenAI argues that Musk’s claims should be viewed alongside his own role as a competitor. Musk founded xAI in 2023, and the business rivalry between xAI and OpenAI has grown as both companies push deeper into the generative AI market.
OpenAI strategy chief Jason Kwon said in the company’s letter to state authorities that Musk had repeatedly tried to gain control of OpenAI’s nonprofit structure and had failed. With jury selection scheduled for April 27, the court fight is now entering a more direct phase, with both sides pressing harder in public and in court filings.
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