Catenaa, Thursday, November, 2024 – Elon Musk rejected OpenAI’s proposal to launch an initial coin offering (ICO) in early 2018, citing potential reputational damage, according to an amended court filing submitted on November 14.
Musk’s legal team claims OpenAI founders Sam Altman and Greg Brockman suggested the token sale to secure funding, but Musk dismissed the idea as undermining OpenAI’s credibility.
OpenAI, originally a non-profit focused on safe artificial general intelligence (AGI), shifted to a for-profit model in 2019 to secure necessary funding.
Musk, who invested $44 million in OpenAI and served as co-chair, proposed merging the organization with Tesla before stepping down in February 2018. He later launched xAI, an AI venture of his own.
In August, Musk filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, its executives, and Microsoft—an investor since 2019—alleging fraud, unfair competition, and RICO violations.
The filing also notes that Altman-backed Worldcoin introduced its own crypto token, WLD, in July 2023, though OpenAI is not affiliated with the project. WLD was trading at $2.21 as of Nov. 15.
OpenAI’s transition and Musk’s departure mark a contentious chapter in the evolution of AI funding and governance, with their fallout now playing out in court.
