OpenAI has urged a probe into Elon Musk’s alleged anti-competitive behavior ahead of a major trial, which intensified tensions within the AI industry and raised concerns about fair competition and regulation.
The letter also alleged that Musk and his “intermediaries” had conducted extensive opposition research on Altman, tracking his flights and other movements. It further goes on to blame Musk for circulating this research, as well as false allegations of se**al misconduct, by the OpenAI CEO.
Sam Altman-led OpenAI has reportedly sent a letter to the California and Delaware attorneys general, requesting them to investigate “improper and anti-competitive behavior” by Elon Musk and his associates. According to a report by CNBC, Jason Kwon, chief strategy officer at OpenAI alleged that Musk “has repeatedly attempted—and failed—to wrest control of the nonprofit for his personal gain”.
Kwon blamed the Tesla CEO for “coordinating his efforts” with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to “attack” OpenAI. Musk and Zuckerberg are “turning to conduct and approaches that we do think are really highly questionable and sharply worthy of investigation”, OpenAI Chief Global Affairs Officer Chris Lehane said. He asked why “two of the top four wealthiest people, most powerful people in the world,” are trying to stop a non-profit from moving forward.
OpenAI further alleged that Musk’s behavior could inhibit OpenAI’s efforts to bring about artificial general intelligence or AGI.
“These attacks are designed to take control of the future of AGI out of the hands of those who are legally obligated to pursue the mission of ensuring that AGI benefits all of humanity and put it into the hands of competitors who lack mission-driven principles and spurn any responsibility for safety,” Kwon wrote.
Founded in 2015 as a nonprofit company, OpenAI promised to develop AI “in the way that is most likely to benefit humanity.” With billions of dollars in investments from Microsoft, Japanese bank SoftBank, and chipmaker Nvidia, OpenAI faced increasing corporate pressure to separate its business operations from nonprofit status. There was an initial funding commitment of $1 billion from Sam Altman and Elon Musk.
The following is a brief timeline of how the relationship between OpenAI and Elon Musk became bitter.
March 2019: OpenAI announces a for-profit subsidiary.
November 17-20, 2023: Sam Altman was briefly ousted.
February 2024: Musk sued OpenAI for abandoning its “non-profit mission of developing AGI for the benefit of humanity.”
December 2024: OpenAI announces plans to restructure
April 1, 2025: OpenAI raises $20 billion, conditional on restructuring
April 9-17, 2025: Advocacy groups criticize the restructure
May 5, 2025: OpenAI backtracks quoting “The nonprofit will control and also be a large shareholder of the PBC.”
August 4, 2025: Nonprofit groups, former OpenAI employees, and public intellectuals sign a public letter asking OpenAI seven questions about the proposed restructure.
August 5-October 2, 2025: OpenAI serves subpoenas to critics
October 10, 2025: OpenAI employees address subpoenas on X
October 28, 2025: OpenAI announces that its restructure is complete
January 2026: Over 100 documents were unsealed this week in Elon Musk's lawsuit against OpenAI and Sam Altman. The unsealed records show texts, emails, and even journal entries from powerful tech figures.
Also Read: Sam Altman’s AI Race Claim Sparks US Funding Controversy
The letter comes ahead of the April 27 trial date between the two sides. OpenAI’s letter against Elon Musk further claims that if the tech billionaire’s legal efforts are successful, it will benefit xAI’s Grok AI platform, which is being investigated globally “for generating sexually explicit deepfakes of women, including children, without their knowledge or consent, allegedly to boost usage of its services ahead of an upcoming IPO.”
At $500 billion, OpenAI became the most valuable private company in the world in 2025. However, Elon Musk isn’t known for going down without a fight. The result might have substantial consequences for how AI businesses reconcile the needs of corporations with social accountability.