Elon Musk is seeking between $79 billion and $134 billion in damages from OpenAI and Microsoft, claiming the artificial intelligence company cheated him out of its nonprofit mission, Bloomberg. reported for the first time. The number comes from expert witness C. Paul Wazzan, a financial economist whose resume says he has been deposed nearly 100 times and has testified more than a dozen times in complex commercial cases.
Wazzan, who specializes in valuation and damage calculations in high-stakes disputes, found that Musk is entitled to a large portion of OpenAI’s current $500 billion valuation based on his $38 million donation when he co-founded the startup in 2015.
Wazzan’s analysis combines Musk’s initial financial contributions with the technical expertise and business contributions he provided to the early OpenAI team, unfairly estimating $65.5 billion to $109.4 billion in earnings for OpenAI and $13.3 billion to $25.1 billion for Microsoft, which currently owns 27% piece of the company.
Musk’s legal team argues that he should be compensated as an early startup investor who sees returns “many orders of magnitude greater” than his initial investment. But the sheer scale of the compensation demand underscores that this legal battle isn’t really about money.
Musk’s personal fortune currently hovers around $700 billion, making him by far the richest man in the world. Like Reuters recently notedhis fortune now surpasses that of Google co-founder Larry Page, the world’s second-richest man, by $500 billion, according to the Forbes billionaires list. In November, Tesla shareholders separately approved a $1 trillion pay package for Musk, the largest corporate pay package in history.
Against this backdrop, even a $134 billion payout from OpenAI would represent a relatively modest addition to Musk’s wealth, possibly reinforcing for those at OpenAI the lawsuit to be part of an “ongoing pattern of harassment” rather than a legitimate financial grievance. OpenAI already allegedly sent a letter Thursday to its investors and other business partners, warning that Musk will make “deliberately outlandish claims to get attention” as his lawsuit against the company goes to trial in April. The case will be heard in Oakland, California, about 15 miles east of San Francisco.
