In a lawsuit that can only happen in America, and only if you are a billionaire, Elon Musk is suing OpenAI for fraud, claiming that the company gave up the non-profit frame work he invested under, and despite investing $38 million, a small amount of money for a man estimated to be worth around $700 billion, he wants up to $134 billion in compensation, an insane amount for most people, but given that the company is currently valued around $500 billion, and Musk did provide a very large part of the founding in 2015, these numbers are not even unrealistic.
What is even more insane, is that awarding full damages would yield Musk a 3,500 times the return on his investment.
The calculations from C.P. Wazzan acquired by Bloomberg, and supported by the official court filing by Musk in which he also sues Microsoft, who also has earned up to $25 billion depending on valuation and calculation method. It is important to note that C.P. Wazzan is used by Musk as an expert witness, and is not to be considered an independent outside expert.
Musk claims that he is entitled to the "wrongful gains" that OpenAI has earned due to his investment, and providing not only money, but also business advice, and insights in to upscaling, something that is deniably important and valuable for modern IT services.
While Microsoft has remained silent, OpenAI has in public statements described the lawsuit as harassment and baseless. Although unsourced at the time of writing, several news outlets have quoted an unknown Microsoft lawyer claiming that there's no evidence for the company aiding OpenAI.
The trial starts in April if everything goes to plan, and can be rather costly as Musk claims he provided not only start-up help, advice, and recruitment, but also contacts and that his funding alone was 60% of the initial funding for the company.