Elon Musk accused of making up math to squeeze $134B from OpenAI, Microsoft
Elon Musk is going for some substantial damages in his lawsuit accusing OpenAI of abandoning its nonprofit mission and "making a fool out of him" as an early investor.
On Friday, Musk filed a notice on remedies sought in the lawsuit, confirming that he's seeking damages between $79 billion and $134 billion from OpenAI and its largest backer, co-defendant Microsoft.
Musk hired an expert he has never used before, C. Paul Wazzan, who reached this estimate by concluding that Musk's early contributions to OpenAI generated 50 to 75 percent of the nonprofit's current value. He got there by analyzing four factors: Musk's total financial contributions before he left OpenAI in 2018, Musk's proposed equity stake in OpenAI in 2017, Musk's current equity stake in xAI, and Musk's nonmonetary contributions to OpenAI (like investing time or lending his reputation).