Elon Musk won’t back down in his fight against OpenAI, here's why

Sam Altman, Elon Musk

Elon Musk will continue his lawsuit against OpenAI, his lawyer confirmed Monday, despite the AI startup’s decision to retain nonprofit control over its for-profit business. According to a report by Reuters, the move by OpenAI was widely seen as a strategic backtrack in the face of mounting legal and public pressure, but Musk isn’t backing down.

“Nothing in today’s announcement changes the fact that OpenAI will still be developing closed-source AI for the benefit of Altman, his investors, and Microsoft,” Marc Toberoff, Musk’s attorney told Reuters in a statement. “The announcement obscures critical details about the supposed ‘non-profit control’ arrangement, and particularly the sharply reduced ownership stake the non-profit will receive in Altman’s for-profit enterprise.” The legal battle will commence in March 2026 as a jury trial has been scheduled.

Earlier in the day, OpenAI revealed that its nonprofit parent would remain in charge of the for-profit entity and take on a major shareholder role, moving away from plans that would have potentially reduced nonprofit oversight. The restructuring also involves converting the for-profit arm into a Public Benefit Corporation (PBC), a structure that rivals like Anthropic and X.ai have also adopted.

OpenAI dismissed Musk’s lawsuit as a stalling tactic. “Elon continuing with his baseless lawsuit only proves that it was always a bad-faith attempt to slow us down,” a spokesperson said.

Musk, who co-founded OpenAI in 2015 and left the board in 2018, alleges that the company has strayed far from its original open-source, nonprofit mission. The lawsuit, filed earlier this year, seeks to block OpenAI’s organizational shift.

The legal battle has drawn broader scrutiny from tech giants and AI pioneers. Meta has voiced concern, and Geoffrey Hinton, the so-called godfather of AI, has joined calls for regulators to intervene.