Vengeful Fury: Elon Musk Demands Firing of ChatGPT Creator's Boss

Elon Musk has asked the court to remove CEO Sam Altman and President Greg Brockman from their positions at OpenAI. Musk accuses both individuals of lying to him. The request is detailed in legal documents filed by Musk’s lawyers on Tuesday (8/4/2026). The documents outline Musk’s demands should the court rule in his favour in the lawsuit against OpenAI. Musk sued Altman and OpenAI in 2024. He alleges that OpenAI deceived him into donating US$38 million when the company was founded about 10 years ago. At that time, according to Musk, OpenAI committed to remaining a non-profit entity. “The plaintiff wants the court to remove Altman’s position as a director on the OpenAI non-profit board and to remove Altman and Brockman’s positions in the for-profit OpenAI entity,” Musk’s lawyer stated in the documents. Musk also requests that the court force OpenAI to operate again as a non-profit entity. Following the restructuring in October, the OpenAI non-profit entity holds 26 per cent of shares in the for-profit OpenAI entity. In a social media post, OpenAI described Musk as “pretending to redirect his attacks to the OpenAI Foundation.” “In reality, this case is Elon’s desire for more power and wealth to fulfil his ambitions. His lawsuit is nothing more than a campaign to harass us, triggered by ego, jealousy, and an attempt to slow down the development of a rival company,” OpenAI stated. Musk, Altman, and several others co-founded OpenAI as a non-profit AI laboratory in 2015. In 2018, Musk left OpenAI after failing to persuade the other founders to merge OpenAI with Tesla. In 2023, Musk launched his own AI company called xAI. The company, now merged with SpaceX, is the creator of the Grok chatbot, a rival to OpenAI’s ChatGPT. The combined company of SpaceX with X [formerly Twitter] and xAI surpasses US$1.25 trillion. OpenAI has retaliated against Musk’s actions by requesting that state prosecutors in California and Delaware investigate the world’s richest man’s conduct. OpenAI Chief Strategy Officer Jason Kwon accuses Musk of attempting to disrupt OpenAI through various attacks, including colluding with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.