By Mike Scarcella
(Reuters) -Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk expanded his lawsuit against ChatGPT maker OpenAI, adding federal antitrust and other claims and adding OpenAI’s biggest backer Microsoft as a defendant.
Musk’s amended lawsuit, filed Thursday evening in federal court in Oakland, California, alleges that Microsoft and OpenAI illegally attempted to monopolize the market for generative artificial intelligence and side competitors.
Like Musk’s original August complaint, it accused OpenAI and its CEO, Samuel Altman, of violating contract terms by putting profits ahead of the public interest in the effort to advance AI.
“Never before has a company gone from tax-exempt charity to a $157 billion market-crippling gorgon – in just eight years,” the complaint said. It seeks to void OpenAI’s license with Microsoft and force them to divest “ill-gotten” profits.
OpenAI said in a statement that the latest lawsuit is “even more baseless and far-reaching than the previous one.” Microsoft declined to comment.
“Microsoft’s anticompetitive practices have escalated,” Musk’s lawyer Marc Toberoff said in a statement. “Sunlight is the best disinfectant.”
Musk has long-simmering opposition to OpenAI, a startup he co-founded that has since become the face of generative AI thanks to billions of dollars in funding from Microsoft.
Musk has gained new fame as a key force in the new administration of new US President Donald Trump. Trump appointed Musk to a new role aimed at combating government waste after donating millions of dollars to Trump’s Republican campaign.
The lengthy lawsuit alleges that OpenAI and Microsoft violated antitrust law by making investment opportunities conditional on agreements not to associate with the companies’ rivals. It said the companies’ exclusive licensing agreement amounted to a merger without regulatory approval.
In a lawsuit last month, OpenAI accused Musk of pursuing the lawsuit as part of an “increasingly vocal campaign to harass OpenAI for his own competitive advantage.”
(Reporting by Mike Scarcella; Editing by David Bario and Jonathan Oatis)
