OpenAI asks AG to investigate Elon Musk’s ‘anti-competitive’ behavior ahead of trial

OpenAI has asked Attorney General Rob Bonta to investigate allegations that Tesla executive Elon Musk and Meta executive Mark Zuckerberg are working together to undermine OpenAI’s philanthropic efforts and boost Musk’s ongoing lawsuit against the artificial intelligence behemoth and its chief executive, Sam Altman. Last month, OpenAI announced that it was investing $1 billion a year in Alzheimer’s research, developing child safety guardrails for its Chat

GPT chatbot product, and other causes after it reorganized from a hybrid nonprofit model to a public benefit corporation last year. Musk helped found OpenAI in 2015 with Altman but left the company in 2018 over disagreements and to start his own AI firm, xAI. He sued OpenAI and its financial backer Microsoft for over $130 billion in 2024, claiming the two firms cheated him out of his earnings as an early investor in the years after OpenAI became one of the world’s wealthiest companies.

The lawsuit is set to go to trial later this month in a San Francisco federal court; OpenAI called his suit “baseless.” Meta, under Zuckerberg, has also ventured into the AI world with its Llama language model. OpenAI chief strategy officer Jason Kwon accused Musk and Zuckerberg of colluding as Musk sought to dig up incriminating information on Altman and “attack” OpenAI, according to a letter to Bonta and Delaware Attorney General Kathy Jennings obtained by The Sacramento Bee.

OpenAI was first founded as a nonprofit in Delaware, before its restructuring in California last fall. Valued at almost $1 trillion, the company has begun flexing its muscle in California politics as legislators consider regulations for how to monitor interactions between children and its flagship Chat

GPT companion bot.

“Mr. Musk has repeatedly attempted — and failed — to wrest control of the nonprofit for his personal gain, such as seeking to merge the nonprofit with his own company Tesla, launching a takeover bid for the nonprofit’s assets, and using litigation to attempt to derail OpenAI’s recapitalization and interfere with the structure of the October Agreements, with trial commencing later this month,” Kwon wrote.

“Indeed, it appears that Mr. Musk has reached new lows, as it has been just reported today that he is directing the circulation of false and wholly unfounded allegations in the press in a last-ditch effort to discredit OpenAI and its leadership.” Kwon asked Bonta and Jennings to investigate any “anti-competitive” and “improper” behavior by Musk and his associates. He cited a bombshell New Yorker story published Monday that reported Musk hired investigators to compile opposition research on Altman, including tracking his flights and parties he attended, and interviewing a sex worker Altman supposedly hired, and chasing down rumors that Altman sexually pursued minors.

Bonta’s office said it was reviewing the letter and declined to comment further. Spokespeople for Musk and Meta did not immediately respond.

In an interview, OpenAI global affairs chief Chris Lehane called Musk and Zuckerberg’s alleged collusion a coordinated effort by “two of the wealthiest, most powerful people in the world” to not only undermine a competitor but to thwart efforts by OpenAI to advance its public interest mission. “The Attorney General is obviously the top law enforcement officer in the state,” Lehane said of Bonta. “The conduct that has now been reported (by the New Yorker) is conduct that potentially really directly implicates that nonprofit...and by extension, the resources, assets, and money that is supposed to go to the public good, in the public interest.”