Musk Tries a New Angle: Give All Damages Back to OpenAI’s Nonprofit

Elon Musk just tweaked his legal strategy against OpenAI, and it’s a smart move if you ask me. On Tuesday, he filed an amendment to his ongoing lawsuit against OpenAI and Sam Altman, making it crystal clear that if he wins any damages, the money won’t go into his pocket. It’ll go straight back to OpenAI’s charitable nonprofit arm.

His lawyer, Marc Toberoff, told The Wall Street Journal that Musk “is not seeking a single dollar for himself.” Bold claim, but it’s a clever way to sidestep one of OpenAI’s main defenses: that this whole lawsuit is just Musk trying to harass a rival he helped co-found but now sees as his biggest competitor.

Musk’s original lawsuit accused OpenAI of abandoning its founding mission — you know, the whole “develop AI for the benefit of humanity, not profit” thing. The shift to a capped-profit structure and then the massive commercial push with ChatGPT and GPT-4 really rubbed him the wrong way. He’s been vocal about it, and now he’s trying to prove it in court.

By offering to funnel any recovered money back to the nonprofit side of OpenAI, Musk is basically saying: “I don’t care about the cash, I care about the principle.” It’s a classic PR move, but it also puts OpenAI in an awkward position. If they argue against returning money to their own nonprofit, they look greedy. If they accept the offer, they’re admitting there’s something to return.

I’m not convinced this changes the core legal arguments, though. The lawsuit still hinges on whether OpenAI’s shift from nonprofit to capped-profit violated any binding agreements or fiduciary duties. That’s a tough case to make, especially since the original nonprofit structure was always intended to evolve. But Musk’s amendment does make the lawsuit harder to dismiss as a petty billionaire squabble.

It’s also worth noting that Musk has his own AI company, xAI, which is building Grok. So there’s definitely a competitive angle here, no matter how much he frames it as altruism. But by offering to give damages back to OpenAI’s nonprofit, he’s at least trying to clean up the optics.

Honestly, I think this is more about public perception than legal strategy. Musk knows he’s fighting an uphill battle in court, so he’s playing the long game: paint OpenAI as the bad guy, get the public on his side, and maybe force some concessions. Whether that works remains to be seen, but I’ll be watching this one closely.