Musk wants OpenAI to auction off a large stake

Elon Musk’s lawyer has asked the attorneys general of California and Delaware to force OpenAI to auction off a large stake in its business, escalating a feud with the company’s CEO, Sam Altman.

In a letter to the state’s top legal officials, Musk’s lawyer, Mark Toperoff, said he was speaking on behalf of major AI investors who want to participate in an open, competitive bidding process for a stake in OpenAI.

A person familiar with the company behind ChatGPT said OpenAI has no plans to hold such an auction, adding that Musk’s team simply wants more chaos, according to the Financial Times.

The unusual request comes after Musk last year filed lawsuits against OpenAI, which was founded as a nonprofit dedicated to ensuring that artificial intelligence benefits humanity, over its attempt to restructure itself into a for-profit company.

Musk co-founded OpenAI with Altman and nine others in 2015 and was the company’s largest early-stage funder before stepping down from the board in 2018 after falling out with Altman. OpenAI launched a for-profit arm a year later to raise outside capital, including more than $13 billion to date from its biggest backer, Microsoft, though the nonprofit, along with employees and investors, now owns the for-profit arm.