A federal judge held a March trial in Elon Musk’s challenge to Sam Altman’s business structure plan overhaul, laying the foundation for a high-risk conflict between the two billionaires.
U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, Oakland, California, tried it at a hearing Friday on the March 16 calendar, after promising to do a quick training rather than keeping it going until 2027.
Gonzalez Rogers last month rejected Musk’s request to temporarily suspend Chatgpt Maker’s move from a nonprofit to a more traditional public interest for-profit company. But she called for an expedited trial of the “core” claims of Musk’s 2024 lawsuit, believing Openai’s restructuring plan was illegal.
Having a strong trial date may affect the decisions made by the Openai board in choosing strategies to move to a for-profit business model. After Openai completed the transition, the trial could also begin: The startup has already had conversations with Delaware and California officials about its restructuring plan, and the size of its latest funding round depends in part on completing its restructuring process by the end of 2025.
Musk and Ultraman worked together to establish Openai in 2015. Musk now claims Openai retreated from its founding purpose as a charity when it received billions of dollars in support from Microsoft Corp. Starting in 2019, a year after he left the OpenAI board of directors.
According to Bloomberg News, the world’s wealthiest person launched his own artificial intelligence startup in 2023 and acquired the X social media platform in late March. He also controls the X social media platform and offers a new merged entity called Xai Holdings, worth more than $100 billion.
Openai denied Musk’s legal claims and believed that his real agenda in the court struggle was to advance Xai. It asked the judge to dismiss Musk’s lawsuit so as not to “destroy successful competitors” because he “cannot control Openai.”
Openai said earlier this week that it finally completed a $40 billion funding round led by Softbank Group Corp. The deal is worth $300 billion, including the dollar raised, almost double the previous $157 billion valuation of Chatgpt Maker, compared to the fundraising in October.
But if Openai has not completed its restructuring by the end of 2025, Softbank will be able to reduce its contribution from $30 billion to $20 billion, and OpenAI can choose other investors, as Bloomberg reported.
The case is Musk v. Altman, 4:24-CV-04722, U.S. District Court, Northern California District.
This article was generated from the Automation News Agency feed without the text being modified.
