The court rejects Elon’s latest attempt to slow OpenAI down

This lawsuit has always been about what’s good for Elon and his own for-profit AI company. The truth is, he wanted to merge a for-profit OpenAI into Tesla - as his own emails⁠ show. We turned him down and he left because he couldn’t seize control. When he later saw the progress we’d made without him, Elon began resorting to baseless lawsuits while still trying to copy our playbook to develop competing models with his own for-profit, multi-billion-dollar company.

Last week, the court rejected Elon’s request for a preliminary injunction, finding that he hadn’t “demonstrated likelihood of success on the merits” of his claims. In fact, the court went further, dismissing several of his claims from the case entirely. This ruling brings us a big step closer to putting this ridiculous lawsuit to rest.

As Elon is finding out, facts matter - especially in court. And the most important fact is one that he keeps twisting: The non-profit isn’t going anywhere. Despite what Elon claims, there is no non-profit  “conversion” in the cards. 

We welcome the opportunity to make it clear in court that we fully intend to (1) keep the non-profit as a crucial part of our work to achieve our mission, and (2) make sure it’s not just supported by a successful business, but in a stronger position than ever. It’s also important to note that we’ve had for-profit subsidiaries for years now - any new structure will simply ensure that business can even better support the non-profit.

Our Board has been very clear⁠ that we intend to strengthen the non-profit so that it can deliver on its mission for the long term. We're not selling it, we're doubling down on its work. It will have a significant stake in our proposed public-benefit corporation, making it one of the most well-resourced non-profits in history.

In a way, Elon was right when he said in 2017 that we needed to evolve OpenAI’s structure. He was also right when he formed his own AI company, xAI, as a public-benefit corporation. But he’s wrong when it comes to this baseless, cynically self-serving lawsuit, the false allegations propping it up, and other petty tactics like the so-called “bid”. The court has rightly seen through this latest attempt, and we’re confident it will continue to do so.