To beat Altman in court, Musk offers to give all damages to OpenAI nonprofit

Elon Musk has significantly amended his high-profile lawsuit against OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman, pivoting his legal strategy to focus on returning any potential damages to the AI company's original nonprofit arm. Musk's lawyer, Marc Toberoff, stated the Tesla CEO "is not seeking a single dollar for himself," aiming to counter OpenAI's claims that the suit is a harassment tactic. This strategic shift comes directly after a US District Judge, Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, denied Musk's request for punitive damages and criticized his expert's calculation that OpenAI's wrongful gains could be worth $134 billion. The judge essentially ruled that Musk's initial legal theories for personal compensation had fizzled out, forcing this recalibration to keep the case alive.

Musk's revised filing now seeks extreme remedies: returning all alleged profits to the charity, unseating Sam Altman and Greg Brockman from the company's board, and permanently unwinding OpenAI's conversion to a for-profit capped structure. He accuses the defendants of fraudulently soliciting donations and labor to build a "wealth machine" for themselves and Microsoft, subordinating the public charity to private interests. The trial is expected to begin this month, where a jury will interpret California's charitable trust laws to decide if Musk's claims have merit. OpenAI has consistently called the lawsuit "baseless," setting the stage for a landmark legal battle over the governance and mission of one of the world's most influential AI labs.