In a letter to investors and banking partners, OpenAI said it expects Elon Musk to make “deliberately outlandish, attention-grabbing claims” as his lawsuit against the company heads to trial in April 2026. By explaining the situation in advance, the company aims to calm any concerns among financial partners. OpenAI’s valuation has climbed to around 500 billion dollars, and the lawsuit is viewed as one of the major risk factors surrounding the company.
Musk co-founded OpenAI as a non-profit AI research organization in 2015 together with Sam Altman and others, then left the board in 2018. He later claimed that OpenAI pursued a path toward becoming a for-profit company and built what he calls an “opaque network of for-profit affiliates,” including a massive partnership with Microsoft, and on that basis filed his lawsuit in 2024.
According to the complaint, Musk says he was “assiduously manipulated” and deceived during this process, and argues that he is entitled to the entire value of the intellectual property created from his contributions. That amount is said to potentially reach into the tens of billions of dollars. OpenAI, on the other hand, has indicated it believes the financial significance of the lawsuit does not exceed the 38 million dollars Musk donated to the organization.
The suit, filed in August 2024 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, was allowed to proceed to trial earlier this month by Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers. This pushes the longstanding, simmering conflict between Musk and OpenAI into a new phase where it will be contested openly in court.
In the letter, OpenAI says it has “strong defenses” and is confident it can win, while also warning that Musk may make statements that are far removed from reality. The company characterizes such comments as part of the “harassment tactics” he has used in the past, asserts that the lawsuit is “baseless and without merit,” and stresses that its team is focused on ensuring the jury understands the claims for what they really are.
Q1: What is the main reason OpenAI sent this letter to investors?
A1: The goal is to explain the situation and the company’s stance before the April trial, in anticipation that Musk will make extreme and sensational claims, so that investors and banking partners do not panic or overreact to his statements.
Q2: What kind of rights is Musk asserting against OpenAI?
A2: He claims that he was manipulated and deceived as OpenAI pursued commercialization and its deal with Microsoft, and argues that he has the right to receive the full value of all intellectual property created from his contributions, an amount that could potentially reach into the tens of billions of dollars.
Q3: How large does OpenAI estimate the financial risk from the lawsuit to be?
A3: Based on the record so far, OpenAI views the maximum potential monetary significance of the case as roughly limited to the 38 million dollars that Musk donated. However, the company also notes in the letter that this figure is not a guarantee.
OpenAI tells investors to brace for ‘deliberately outlandish’ claims from Musk ahead of trial
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/01/15/openai-to-investors-expect-deliberately-outlandish-claims-from-musk.html
