US court denies Elon Musk's request to block OpenAI's for-profit conversion

A US court has rejected billionaire Elon Musk's bid for an injunction that would halt the transition of OpenAI from a nonprofit to a for-profit firm.

In his request for a preliminary injunction, Musk "has not demonstrated likelihood of success on the merits," according to a decision made late Tuesday by District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers.

She made the ruling “given the public interest at stake and potential for harm if a conversion contrary to law occurred," Rogers said, adding that she would be willing to hold a trial in her California courtroom as early as this fall.

The decision follows OpenAI's rejection of an unsolicited acquisition approach from Musk for $97.4 billion.

OpenAI's CEO Sam Altman called Musk's plan an effort to slow down the business, which is in competition with xAI, Musk's own venture.

The judge's decision to deny an injunction was hailed by OpenAI.

"This has always been about competition," the company said in a statement.

“Elon's own emails show that he wanted to merge a for-profit OpenAI into Tesla. That would have been great for his personal benefit, but not for our mission or US interests," it added, referring to Tesla, Musk's electric car company.

Musk accused OpenAI in the lawsuit he filed last year of breaking its obligations to him when he and Altman worked together to establish the business in 2015.

In 2019, the year after he stepped down from OpenAI's board, Musk says the company began accepting billions of dollars in funding from Microsoft, abandoning its original goal of becoming a nonprofit.

In addition to Tela and SpaceX, his outer space technology firm, Musk has recently made headlines for his controversial role in cost-cutting efforts in the administration of US President Donald Trump. Musk last year was Trump's single largest campaign donor.