Elon Musk, founder of companies such as Tesla and SpaceX, recently revealed in court documents that he contributed more than $38 million to OpenAI. He provided this money with the expectation that OpenAI would remain a nonprofit organization focused on benefiting humanity. According to his lawyers, it was one of the largest early investments in the company behind ChatGPT.
The details of the November 7 court filing state that Musk donated five quarterly grants of $5 million each in 2016 and 2017. In addition, he covered OpenAI's rent totaling $12.7 million between 2016 and 2020. All of this was intended to support the development of artificial intelligence without a profit motive.
Gifts in the Form of Luxury Teslas
One of the most striking details is Musk's gift of four new Tesla vehicles to key OpenAI employees. In a 2017 email sent from his SpaceX account to co-founders Greg Brockman and Ilya Sutskever, Musk offered "Founder Series Model 3" vehicles—the earliest models, which were not available to the public. "In appreciation of what you've done for OpenAI to get it where it is today, I'd like to give each of you a Founder Series Model 3," Musk wrote.
Sutskever responded enthusiastically: "Wow, thank you!" and suggested that co-founder Wojciech Zaremba and John Schulman receive the same gift. Musk asked whether the offer should be extended to others as well, and ultimately provided four such Teslas. These factory-fresh vehicles were intended to symbolize gratitude for their work on OpenAI.
Dispute Over the Transition to a For-Profit Company
This story is part of a longer dispute between Musk and OpenAI co-founder Sam Altman. Last year, Musk sued Altman and the company, claiming that his contributions were conditional on OpenAI remaining a nonprofit entity serving humanity. According to Musk, OpenAI deceived him when it completed its transition to a for-profit model last month.
OpenAI's lawyers are seeking to have the lawsuit dismissed, arguing that most of Musk's funding was provided indirectly, for example through donor-advised funds. Musk, however, insists that most of it was direct, including the aforementioned grants. OpenAI called the lawsuit "baseless and a waste of time" and released emails in which Musk allegedly proposed merging OpenAI with Tesla.
Musk previously claimed on X (formerly Twitter) that he had contributed $100 million (approximately CZK 2.35 billion), while OpenAI states that the amount was less than $45 million. Musk now argues that the dispute should proceed to trial because of discrepancies over whether OpenAI misused his donations.
In recent filings, Musk is urging the court to allow the case to proceed to a full trial because there are disputed facts as to whether OpenAI and its leaders deceived him. An OpenAI spokesperson declined to comment on the details of the gifts, including the Teslas, and merely reiterated that the lawsuit is unnecessary.
Sources: theinformation.com and businessinsider.com
