According to ChainCatcher, citing US News, a federal judge in California rejected OpenAI and Microsoft's requests to dismiss Elon Musk's lawsuit. The Musk v. OpenAI case will go to jury trial in April. Musk's side recently formally filed a $134 billion claim for unjust enrichment, with OpenAI's unjust enrichment estimated at $65.5 billion to $109.4 billion and Microsoft's at $13.3 billion to $25.1 billion, totaling approximately $79 billion to $134 billion.
Musk's legal team hired financial economist C. Paul Wazzan as an expert witness, who ultimately calculated this staggering figure. Musk provided approximately $38 million in seed funding when he co-founded OpenAI in 2015, representing 60% of the early seed round. He also believes that in addition to funding, he contributed his personal reputation, key connections, and experience in scaling a business, stating, "Without Musk, there would be no OpenAI." Now that OpenAI has transformed into a for-profit entity with a valuation of approximately $500 billion, Musk believes he should receive a corresponding proportion of "unjust enrichment" damages. Musk has long accused OpenAI of deviating from its initial non-profit and human-benefiting mission, instead collaborating deeply with Microsoft and becoming a for-profit company controlled by Microsoft.
