According to ChainCatcher, a federal judge in California has rejected a motion by OpenAI and Microsoft to dismiss a lawsuit filed by Elon Musk. The case is set to proceed to a jury trial in April. Recently, Musk's legal team has filed a claim for $134 billion in unjust enrichment, estimating OpenAI's share between $65.5 billion and $109.4 billion, and Microsoft's between $13.3 billion and $25.1 billion, totaling approximately $79 billion to $134 billion.
Musk's legal team has enlisted financial economist C. Paul Wazzan as an expert witness to calculate these figures. Musk, who co-founded OpenAI in 2015, contributed around $38 million in seed funding, representing 60% of the early seed round. He argues that his contributions extended beyond financial support to include personal reputation, key connections, and experience in scaling enterprises, asserting that "without Musk, there would be no OpenAI." OpenAI has since transitioned into a for-profit entity with an estimated valuation of $500 billion, and Musk believes he is entitled to a proportional share of the "unjust enrichment" compensation.
Musk has long accused OpenAI of deviating from its original nonprofit mission to benefit humanity, alleging that it has instead formed a deep partnership with Microsoft, becoming a profit-driven company under Microsoft's influence.