OpenAI publishes more of Elon Musk’s internal emails showing he originally favored a for-profit structure

n Musk asked a federal court to stop OpenAI from moving to a for-profit business structure.

OpenAI responded to co-founder Elon Musk on Friday with a new legal filing and a pointed blog post featuring the billionaire’s old emails in which he pushed for the AI startup to be for-profit.

The emails and filing are the latest blows thrown in the legal feud between OpenAI and Musk. Last month, Musk asked a federal court to stop OpenAI from moving to a for-profit business structure. In the last year, Musk has twice sued OpenAI in an effort to stop the startup from adopting a more traditional business structure.

In a Friday afternoon legal filing, OpenAI accused Musk of trying to hobble the AI startup while he perfects his competitor, xAI.

The company also detailed its version of a timeline of events in a post titled “Elon Musk wanted an OpenAI for profit,” saying that the Tesla CEO “not only wanted, but actually created a for-profit” structure in 2017.

The emails stand in contrast to Musk’s more recent public stance against OpenAI transitioning from a not-for-profit company to a for-profit organization.

Musk did not immediately respond to B-17’s request for comment.

In one image of a November 2015 email, Musk wrote to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman that the startup’s then-non-profit structure “doesn’t seem optimal,” according to the post.

OpenAI wrote in the blog that the company and Musk both agreed that a for-profit was the next step for the startup in the fall of 2017. But when Musk failed to win majority equity, OpenAI accused him of walking away and saying the company would “fail.”

Musk left the OpenAI board in 2018, but his lawyers have said he continued contributing to the company until 2020.

“Now that OpenAI is the leading AI research lab and Elon runs a competing AI company, he’s asking the court to stop us from effectively pursuing our mission,” OpenAI wrote this week.

Musk announced xAI, his competitor to OpenAI, last year and has since released the Grok chatbot.

OpenAI also published Musk’s private emails in March after Musk sued OpenAI and Altman.

In a November 2015 email published earlier this year, Musk said the company should say it was starting with a funding commitment of $1 billion, promising to cover “whatever anyone else doesn’t provide.”

OpenAI also accused Musk at the time of wanting the startup to merge with Tesla and be its “cash cow.”

Musk’s most recent filing is his fourth attempt in less than a year to “reframe his claims,” OpenAI said in the blog post.

“You can’t sue your way to AGI,” the company wrote in the blog post. “We have great respect for Elon’s accomplishments and gratitude for his early contributions to OpenAI, but he should be competing in the marketplace rather than the courtroom.”