Musk Tries a New Tactic in OpenAI Lawsuit: Give the Money Back to the Nonprofit

Elon Musk is trying a different angle in his ongoing legal spat with OpenAI. On Tuesday, he amended his lawsuit against the company and Sam Altman, making it clear that any money recovered from the case should go back to OpenAI’s charitable nonprofit arm — not to Musk personally.

His lawyer, Marc Toberoff, told the Wall Street Journal that Musk “is not seeking a single dollar for himself.” That’s a notable shift in messaging, because one of OpenAI’s main defenses has been that Musk is just using the courts to harass a rival he helped co-found but now clearly despises.

By redirecting any potential damages to the nonprofit side of OpenAI, Musk is trying to undercut that narrative. It’s a smart legal move, honestly. He’s essentially saying: look, I don’t want your money, I want you to honor the original mission you supposedly abandoned.

For context, Musk’s original lawsuit accused OpenAI and Altman of betraying the company’s founding charter — which was all about developing AI for the benefit of humanity, not for profit. Since then, OpenAI has gone full commercial, taking billions from Microsoft and launching paid products like ChatGPT Plus.

Whether this amended approach actually changes anything in court remains to be seen. But it does make Musk’s position harder to dismiss as just a billionaire’s temper tantrum. He’s making a moral argument now, not a financial one.

I doubt OpenAI’s lawyers are losing sleep over it, but it’s a cleaner story for Musk to tell. Whether a judge buys it is another matter entirely.