OpenAI has asked a federal court to get estranged billionaire co-founder Elon Musk to stop publicly bad-mouthing the company — which, they say, is unlawful and is doing harm to the company.

You may recall that a rift was growing between OpenAI's Sam Altman and Elon Musk in the last couple of years, which led Musk to sue OpenAI in March 2024, claiming that the originally nonprofit enterprise had abandoned its professed mission to develop AI "for the benefit of humanity broadly." (The company's leaders responded at the time by publishing email exchanges that showed Musk essentially approving of its for-profit ventures for practical reasons.)

Musk has subsequently spoken ill of the company on Xitter when he gets the chance, flipping out in particular last June when Apple announced a new deal with OpenAI — tweeting that if the deal went through, all his employees would have to check their iPhones at the door of his companies' offices, for fear of company data or secrets being stolen.

In February 2025, while Musk was basking in the glow of the Trump victory he helped secure, he announced a probably performative offer to buy OpenAI for $97.4 billion, or a fraction of what the company is believed to be worth.

Altman responded in a tweet, saying, "No thank you but we will buy twitter for $9.74 billion if you want."

Now, as the New York Times reports, things are getting more serious on OpenAI's end, with a filing in a San Francisco federal court seeking to ban Musk from continuing to attack the company in public. The filing contends that Musk has "made it his project to take down OpenAI," and seeks a court order to prevent Musk from "further unlawful and unfair action."

"Elon continues to use bad-faith tactics in an attempt to slow down OpenAI for his personal benefit," the company said in a statement. "These efforts are anti-competitive and go against our mission, which is why today we filed a countersuit to stop them."

The filing further calls Musk's offer to buy the company "fake," and suggests that Musk's own AI enterprise, xAI, stands to benefit from his from attacks.

OpenAI also clarifies that they are restructuring the company as a for-profit public-benefit corporation or PBC, and "Musk peddles the false claim that OpenAI is planning to ‘convert’ from a nonprofit into a for-profit enterprise."

As The Verge reports, this is happening as a coalition of nonprofit groups and others has filed a petition with the California Attorney General's office to investigate OpenAI's effort to convert from nonprofit to for-profit status.

Musk and his legal team have not yet publicly commented on the legal filing.

Previously: Elon Musk Bids to Buy OpenAI for $97.4 Billion, Sam Altman Laughs It Off

Top image: Photo: Sam Altman of OpenAI walks from lunch during the Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference on July 06, 2022 in Sun Valley, Idaho. The world's most wealthy and powerful businesspeople from the media, finance, and technology will converge at the Sun Valley Resort this week for the exclusive conference. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)