The Superclassic among the billionaires Elon Musk and Sam Altman, The two most prominent figures in the technological field of this era, generated an increasing rivalry, marked by strategic disagreements and high level legal confrontations. Just ten years ago, the collaborative bond was born between South African and former Stanford university student with the creation of OpenAi, But it ended up being a simple memory, giving way to intense and stark competition in the field of artificial intelligence.
In February 2025, the current official of Donald Trump He led an offer of 97.4 billion dollars to acquire OpenAI, with “the intention of returning it to its open source roots and security centered.” Altman, executive director of the company, did not hesitate to reject the offer sharply, qualifying it as a “simulation”, and ironically suggesting the purchase of X (formerly Twitter) by its signature. Musk’s aggressive play led to the presentation of a counter -process against the owner of Tesla, by the creators of Chatgpt, accusing him of developing “actions of bad faith.”
“Musk’s continuous attacks, which recently culminated in an acquisition offer designed only to disturb Openai’s future, must cease,” said the directors of the AI company, noting that South African actions confused the public, allegedly, damaging commercial relations and requiring significant resources to address the interruptions caused. Associated Press reported that the accusations against Musk were filed in a Federal Court in California as an contrademanda to a previous demand of the Tesla CEO against Openai, made last year, and that he addresses to a trial with jurors for 2026.
Back room. Musk was one of Openai investors and now directs his own artificial intelligence company, XAI, along with Tesla, Spacex, the social network X, and the Government Efficiency Department (Doge) of President Donald Trump. In August of last year, the Republican tycoon began a legal offensive against Openai and two of its founders, Sam Altman and Greg Brockman, renewing accusations that the creator of Chatgpt He betrayed his foundational objectives of benefiting the public good.
Musk’s lawsuit, presented in a federal court in northern California, was considered a “classic altruism case against greed.” Altman and others mentioned “intentionally deceived Musk, taking advantage of their humanitarian concern for the existential dangers posed by artificial intelligence,” says the complaint. In the same letter, he said he invested “dozens of millions” of dollars and recruited to prominent research scientists in AI for OpenAi.
That was not the only demand launched by Musk. In February of that same year, in the Superior Court of San Francisco, the billionaire denounced that he had reached an agreement with Altman and Brockman to maintain the company as a non -profit organization. But these accusations of non -compliance with the contract and the fiduciary duty were unlikely to prosper and the lawyer of the Trumpist magnate presented a notification requesting the dismissal of the case.
When did the war start? In 2015, Musk and Altman, along with other investors, founded Openai with the mission of developing a safe way for “the benefit of humanity.” At that time, the organization was conceived as a non -profit entity, committed to transparency and open access to its technological developments. But the great divorce occurred three years later. The reasons depend on which of the parties believe it. The majority agrees that differences between the two references of the Tech Universe regarding the direction of the organization arose.
When Openai became a non -profit organization in Delaware, he declared that his purpose was to “finance the research, development and distribution of technology related to artificial intelligence.” In its tax statements, it also describes its mission how to build “with the general purpose that benefits humanity safely, without the limitation of the need to generate profitability”.
According to Altman and his people, in 2018, the one born in Pretoria proposed to convert Openai into a profitable entity under his control, a proposal that was rejected by the rest of the co -founders. Given this refusal, Musk decided to leave the Board of Directors. Another version says that the executive separation was due to conflicts of interest, since the owner of Tesla was recruiting talents in AI to develop autonomous driving technology for its production of electric cars.
But these arguments contrast with what was stated by Musk and today. Recently, Openai established a hybrid structure, creating Openai LP, a limited profit entity, to attract investments. This transformation facilitated a strategic association with Microsoft, which invested billions of dollars. This situation enabled the South African argued that the firm had diverted from its original mission and had become a “de facto subsidiary” of the emporium of another billionaire actor: Bill Gates.
“Never before had a corporation been an exempt beneficial organization of tax Microsoft and OpenAi They illegally sought to monopolize the generative AI market, marginalizing competitors.
Like the evolution of artificial intelligence, the judicial war between multimillionaires Tech is far from ending and continues to grow.
Image gallery
