Musk Wants Courts to Force OpenAI Back to Nonprofit Status. His Own AI Company Is Pure For-Profit.
Elon Musk wants a court to force OpenAI to return to being a nonprofit. He is not asking the same of his own AI company.
That contradiction is the center of an amended remedies filing Musk submitted Tuesday in his ongoing lawsuit against OpenAI, as the case moves toward a jury trial scheduled to begin April 27 in Oakland, California. The filing asks a federal court to direct any trial winnings to the OpenAI nonprofit foundation and to order the company to unwind the for-profit restructuring it completed in October 2025, Bloomberg reported. Musk is also seeking the removal of Sam Altman and Greg Brockman from their leadership positions at OpenAI.
OpenAI responded with a letter of its own. Jason Kwon, OpenAI's chief strategy officer, sent a letter Monday to California Attorney General Rob Bonta and Delaware Attorney General Kathy Jennings calling for an investigation into what OpenAI described as manipulative filings by Musk, The Hill reported. OpenAI's restructuring converted it to a public benefit corporation, a hybrid structure that gives the nonprofit arm roughly 26 percent control of the for-profit entity. Microsoft holds about 27 percent of the for-profit subsidiary under that arrangement, The Los Angeles Times reported.
Musk's filing does not address xAI, the for-profit AI company he founded in 2023 that closed a $20 billion Series E funding round in January 2026 at a roughly $230 billion valuation.
The damages claim in the underlying lawsuit remains $100 billion to $134 billion, which OpenAI has said would effectively cripple the nonprofit foundation if awarded. Musk separately made a $97.4 billion unsolicited bid to purchase the OpenAI nonprofit in early 2025, a proposal OpenAI rejected. He had promised to withdraw the bid if OpenAI halted its conversion plans.
Whether a court has authority to order a private company to restructure its corporate form remains an open legal question. The April 27 trial date will test those questions before a jury in Oakland.