Musk takes legal action against to block OpenAI's conversion to a for-profit structure

Musk cofounded OpenAI with Altman in 2015

OpenAI argues for-profit relocation needed for capital

Nonprofit to for-profit conversion unusual, specialist says

(Adds judge did not choose whether or not to provide the injunction in paragraph 5, OpenAi's attorneys' comment in paragraph 13)

By Anna Tong and Akash Sriram

OAKLAND, Calif., Feb 4 (Reuters) - A federal judge said on Tuesday that parts of Elon Musk's claim against OpenAI to stop its conversion to a for-profit entity might go to trial, including that the Tesla CEO will need to appear in court and affirm.

"Something is going to trial in this case," U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in Oakland, California, said early in the court session.

"(Elon Musk will) rest on the stand, present it to a jury, and a jury will choose who is right." Rogers was considering Musk's recent ask for a preliminary injunction to block OpenAI's conversion before going to trial, the current move in a grudge match between the world's richest individual and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman that is playing out openly in court.

Rogers did not decide whether or not to release the injunction Tuesday, but at one point suggested that Musk's legal group had not presented adequate evidence for her to issue the injunction, and users.atw.hu suggested she might hold an evidentiary hearing, where both sides might provide witnesses and wiki.vst.hs-furtwangen.de evidence. The last time Rogers provided an initial injunction remained in Epic Games' case against Apple in May 2021.

Musk cofounded OpenAI with Altman in 2015, but left before the business took off and subsequently established the competing AI startup xAI in 2023. OpenAI is now attempting to shift from a nonprofit into a for-profit entity, which it says it requires to do to secure the capital needed to develop the very best expert system designs. In 2015, Musk submitted a claim against OpenAI and gratisafhalen.be Altman, saying that OpenAI ´ s founders initially approached him to money a not-for-profit concentrated on developing AI to benefit mankind, however that it is now focused on making money. He later on expanded the claim to add federal antitrust and other claims, and in December asked the judge commanding the case to stop OpenAI from transitioning to a for-profit.

In response to Musk ´ s claim, OpenAI has said it will move to dismiss Musk ´ s claims which Musk "must be competing in the marketplace instead of the courtroom." The stakes on OpenAI's corporate shift have actually now escalated, as OpenAI ´ s last fundraising round of $6.6 billion and a brand-new round of up to $25 billion under discussion with SoftBank are conditioned on the company reorganizing to remove the nonprofit ´ s manage.

During the hearing, OpenAI's lawyers said the factor visualchemy.gallery to enable OpenAI to end up being a for-profit entity is since it would be necessary to help with the objective of the nonprofit.

Such a restructuring would be highly uncommon, said Rose Chan Loui, utahsyardsale.com executive director of the UCLA Law Center for Philanthropy and Nonprofits. Nonprofit conversions to for-profits have actually historically been for health care companies like hospitals, not endeavor capital-backed business, she said. (Reporting by Anna Tong in Oakland and Akash Sriram in Bengaluru, Editing by Marguerita Choy)