Elon Musk drops lawsuit against Sam Altman and OpenAI

Elon Musk dropped his lawsuit against OpenAI and two of its cofounders, Sam Altman and Greg Brockman, on Tuesday, CNBC reported.

The Tesla CEO’s lawsuit withdrawal comes one day before a judge was set to consider the future of the case during a hearing in San Francisco on Wednesday.

Musk sued the hotshot startup and two of its co-founders in March, accusing Altman and Brockman of betraying OpenAI’s initial mission to benefit humanity.

In the suit, Musk criticized OpenAI’s partnership with Microsoft, saying the AI company had jeopardized its nonprofit mission in favor of maximizing profits for Microsoft.

Altman, Brockman, and Musk founded OpenAI in December 2015 as a nonprofit research lab. Musk left the company in 2018.

Contract law experts said at the time the suit was filed that Musk’s case appeared weak, casting doubt on the billionaire’s claims of breach of contract given the absence of any written contract between Musk and Altman.

OpenAI responded to the suit by calling it “incoherent” and “contradictory,” suggesting Musk was jealous of the company’s success without him.

Since suing the company, Musk has continued to stoke the flames of his feud with Altman, frequently slamming OpenAI on X.

Lawyers for Altman, OpenAI, and Musk did not immediately respond to requests for comment.