OpenAI countersues Musk, alleging harassment campaign

OpenAI filed a countersuit against Elon Musk in the Northern District of California, in the same litigation Musk had originally brought against the company in February 2024 over its shift away from nonprofit control. OpenAI accused Musk of an “unlawful campaign of harassment” combining press attacks, messages to his more than 200 million followers on X, a “pretextual” demand for corporate records, what it called harassing legal claims, and a February 2025 unsolicited takeover bid it valued at $97.4 billion.

The filing characterised the takeover offer as a “sham,” arguing it lacked genuine financing or investor due diligence and was designed to interfere with OpenAI’s planned conversion to a for-profit structure rather than to actually acquire the company; it cited an unnamed investor who it said had described the bid’s real purpose as gaining access to OpenAI’s internal materials. OpenAI sought punitive damages and an injunction against further interference, framing Musk’s actions collectively as anti-competitive conduct by a rival — Musk had founded xAI in 2023 — rather than as good-faith legal advocacy.

The countersuit escalated a dispute that had already run for more than a year without resolving its central question, whether OpenAI’s founders had made a binding commitment to develop AGI openly and non-commercially. Both the original suit and the countersuit were set for trial in March 2026.