Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company, xAI, has accused rival Sam Altman’s OpenAI of stealing trade secrets with the help of former Musk employees, according to new court filings.
The Washington Post reports that in a lawsuit filed last week with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, xAI alleges that three of its former employees — two engineers and a senior executive — passed along source code and other business secrets to OpenAI after being hired away by Sam Altman’s AI powerhouse. The complaint also claims that OpenAI is engaged in a “strategic campaign” to undermine xAI, the AI start-up founded by Musk in 2023, which also owns X, his social media network.
“By hook or by crook, OpenAI clearly will do anything when threatened by a better innovator, including plundering and misappropriating the technical advancements, source code, and business plans of xAI,” the complaint states. OpenAI, the maker of the popular ChatGPT chatbot, is a direct competitor to xAI’s own Grok chatbot.
The lawsuit is the latest development in the long-standing feud between Musk and OpenAI, the company he co-founded but later left due to disagreements over its direction. Musk has been increasingly critical of OpenAI as it has established an early lead in the AI race.
According to the complaint, one former xAI engineer admitted to stealing the company’s entire code base, while another allegedly harvested xAI’s source code and transferred it to personal devices before taking it to OpenAI. The lawsuit also accuses a former senior finance executive of delivering xAI’s “secret sauce” data center strategy to OpenAI.
xAI further alleges that the hiring of these employees was part of an intentional campaign by OpenAI to steal trade secrets, with the same recruiter involved in poaching both engineers. “OpenAI is targeting those individuals with knowledge of xAI’s key technologies and business plans — including xAI’s source code and its operational advantages in launching data centers — then inducing those employees to breach their confidentiality and other obligations to xAI through unlawful means,” the complaint reads.
OpenAI, founded as a nonprofit in 2015, has skyrocketed to the top of the tech world in recent years due to its advances in generative AI. In March, venture capital data firm PitchBook listed its valuation at $300 billion, with investments continuing to pour in. Last week, Nvidia announced it would invest $100 billion to help grow OpenAI’s computing capacity.
An OpenAI spokesperson responded to the lawsuit in an emailed statement, saying, “This new lawsuit is the latest chapter in Mr. Musk’s ongoing harassment. We have no tolerance for any breaches of confidentiality, nor any interest in trade secrets from other labs.”
Read more at the Washington Post here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship.
