Musk Claims $13.4B “Unjust Enrichment” Against OpenAI and Microsoft

BlockBeats News, January 18th, according to US News, a federal judge in California, USA, rejected the request from OpenAI and Microsoft to dismiss Musk's lawsuit. The Musk v. OpenAI case will go to a jury trial in April. Musk's side has recently officially filed a $134 billion claim for "unjust enrichment," with OpenAI's unjust enrichment estimated at $655 billion to $1.094 trillion, and Microsoft's unjust enrichment estimated at $13.3 billion to $25.1 billion, with a total range of about $790 billion to $1.34 trillion. Musk's legal team has hired financial economist C. Paul Wazzan as an expert witness to ultimately calculate this staggering figure.

When Musk participated in the founding of OpenAI in 2015, he provided approximately $38 million in seed funding, accounting for 60% of the early seed round financing. He also believes that in addition to funding, he contributed his personal reputation, key connections, and experience in scaling enterprises, stating that "without Musk, there would be no OpenAI." OpenAI has now transitioned into a for-profit entity, with a valuation of about $500 billion. Musk believes he should receive a proportionate "unjust enrichment" compensation.

Prior to this, Musk had long accused OpenAI of deviating from its early non-profit mission to benefit all of humanity and instead engaging in deep cooperation with Microsoft, becoming a for-profit company controlled by Microsoft.