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Elon Musk Accuses OpenAI and Microsoft of Fraud, Seeks Up to $134 Billion

Elon Musk Accuses OpenAI and Microsoft of Fraud, Seeks Up to $134 Billion

A federal judge in California has set Musk’s $79–134 billion damages case against OpenAI and Microsoft for jury trial in April, advancing his fraud allegations.

Fact Check
The statement is assessed as "likely_true" with high confidence based on the overwhelming and consistent evidence presented across the provided sources. Multiple highly authoritative news outlets, including Reuters, Bloomberg, TechCrunch, and Business Insider, independently corroborate all key elements of the statement. They consistently report that Elon Musk has initiated legal action against both OpenAI and Microsoft, is seeking a specific monetary sum of up to $134 billion, and that the basis of the claim is fraud or 'wrongful gains'. The accusation of 'fraud' is explicitly mentioned by at least two high-authority sources. Furthermore, a primary source from one of the defendants, OpenAI, confirms the existence of the legal dispute by publicly refuting Musk's claims. The consistency of the specific financial figure ($134 billion) across numerous independent reports lends significant credibility to that part of the statement. The single irrelevant source was correctly identified and excluded from the analysis, and there are no contradictions among the remaining relevant sources.
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Summary

On January 18, a California federal judge denied OpenAI and Microsoft’s motion to dismiss Elon Musk’s lawsuit. The case, alleging OpenAI abandoned its nonprofit mission and defrauded Musk, will proceed to a jury trial in April. Musk seeks total damages of $79–134 billion in unjust enrichment, including $65.5–109.4 billion from OpenAI and $13.3–25.1 billion from Microsoft.

Terms & Concepts
  • Nonprofit mission: A guiding principle under which an organization operates without the primary goal of making profit, focusing instead on public or charitable purposes.
  • OpenAI: An artificial intelligence research company originally founded as a nonprofit, later restructuring as a hybrid capped-profit entity.
  • Fraud allegation: A legal claim that an individual or entity engaged in intentional deception for unfair or unlawful gain.