In 2015, Elon Musk helped start OpenAI to keep any one person from controlling AI. Two years later, his own co-founders accused him of trying to become exactly that.
It started with a friend: Larry Page, who controlled DeepMind and dismissed Musk's AI-safety fears — even calling him a "speciesist." That's what drove Musk to build a counterweight. But once OpenAI needed billions to compete, the fight stopped being about the mission and became about control. Musk wanted it — majority stake, CEO, even a merger into Tesla. His co-founders refused, warning of an "AGI dictatorship." He left, predicting "0%" odds. Then ChatGPT exploded, Microsoft poured in billions, and the nonprofit he walked away from became the most valuable startup on Earth. So he sued — and OpenAI published his own emails. He bid $97.4B to buy it; Altman replied, "No thank you." In May 2026 a jury threw the case out on a technicality.
It was never really about open vs. closed. It was about who's in charge.
The Frontier Wars, Part 4. Follow for the series.