Musk wants up to $134B in OpenAI lawsuit, despite $700B fortune
Elon Musk wants a staggering $79 billion to $134 billion in damages from OpenAI and Microsoft, claiming the AI company cheated him by jettisoning his nonprofit mission, Bloomberg first reported. The figure comes from expert witness C. Paul Wazzan, a financial economist whose biography says he has been deposed nearly a hundred times and testified at trial more than a dozen times in complex commercial lawsuits.
Wazzan, which specializes in valuation and damages calculations in high-stakes disputes, has determined that Musk is entitled to a good chunk of OpenAI’s current $500 billion valuation based on his $38 million seed donation when he co-founded the startup in 2015. (If you’re wondering, that would mean a 3,500-fold return on Musk’s investment.)
Wazzan’s analysis combines Musk’s initial financial contributions with the technical knowledge and business contributions he offered to OpenAI’s early team, calculating illicit profits ranging from $65.5 billion to $109.4 billion for OpenAI and $13.3 billion to $25.1 billion for Microsoft, which today owns a 27% chunk of the company.
Musk’s legal team argues that he should be compensated as an early startup investor who sees returns “many orders of magnitude greater” than his initial investment. But the sheer scale of the damages claims underlines that this legal battle isn’t really about the money.
Musk’s personal fortune currently hovers around $700 billion, making him by far the richest person in the world. Like Reuters recently notedAccording to Forbes’ billionaires list, his wealth now surpasses that of Google co-founder Larry Page, the second richest person in the world, by a whopping $500 billion. In November, Tesla shareholders separately approved a $1 trillion pay package for Musk, the largest corporate pay package in history.
Against this backdrop, even a $134 billion payout from OpenAI would represent a relatively modest addition to Musk’s wealth, which for the folks at OpenAI would likely reinforce their characterization of the lawsuit as part of an “ongoing pattern of harassment” rather than a legitimate financial grievance. Open AI already reportedly sent a letter Thursday to investors and others of his business associates, warning that Musk will make “intentionally outlandish, attention-grabbing claims” as his lawsuit against the company goes to trial in April. The case will be heard in Oakland, California, about 15 miles east of San Francisco.
