Ever since Tesla CEO Elon Musk sued OpenAI, some of the biggest names in Silicon Valley have been weighing in. Musk filed a lawsuit against the AI startup he helped found with its CEO Sam Altman — who he is also suing — late last week.
Musk’s lawsuit alleges that OpenAI’s multi-year, multi-billion-dollar partnership with Microsoft betrays its founding commitment to put benefitting humanity over generating profit. Musk left OpenAI in 2018 over a conflict of interest after co-founding the startup with Altman in 2015.
The lawsuit claims a breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty, and unfair business practices by OpenAI. Musk is also asking that the company be ordered to open its research and technology with the public.
Below are some takes from Musk’s and Altman’s fellow tech billionaires on the lawsuit.
Vinod Khosla
Vinod Khosla, the venture capitalist founder of Khosla Ventures, which invested $50 million in OpenAI in 2019, did not have kind words for Musk on X.
“With @elonmusk, feels like a bit of sour grapes in suing @OpenAI, not getting in early enough, not staying committed and now a rival effort,” Khosla said, taking a stab at Musk’s AI startup xAI. “Like they say if you can’t innovate, litigate and that’s what we have here. Elon of old would be building with us to hit the same goal.”
Angel investor Jason Calacanis of the All-In Pod responded to Khosla on X, writing, “not getting in early enough?! he was a founder!”
Musk responded to Calacanis’s post writing, “Vinod doesn’t know what he is talking about here.”
Marc Andreessen
Marc Andreesen, the cofounder and general partner of venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, seemed to side with Musk’s lawsuit over its order for OpenAI to return to its open-source roots.
In another post, Khosla had also voiced support for Altman and OpenAI, writing “These lawsuits are a massive distraction from the goals of getting to AGI and its benefits. Yet, even with all these hurdles, especially given this week, Sam, Greg and team have pushed out better products faster than anyone in AI.”
Andreessen responded to the post, writing, “Vinod is lobbying to ban open source.”
The two billionaires continued tussling back and forth over open- vs. closed-source AI, with Khosla comparing OpenAI to the Manhattan Project, and arguing national security and “a tech economic war with China” were reasons for closed-source AI.
Andreessen took Khosla’s comparison to the development of the atom bomb, saying that OpenAI and other AI labs in the U.S. have “the security equivalent of swiss cheese” and that he assumes “all such American AI labs are fully penetrated and that China is getting nightly downloads of all American AI research and code RIGHT NOW.” That prompted a response from Musk, who wrote, “It would certainly be easy for a state actor to steal their IP.”
Sam Altman
Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, seemed to take a swipe at Musk by digging up old posts between the two from 2019.
In May 2019, Altman had posted support for Tesla and Musk.
“It’s gross seeing so many root against Tesla,” Altman wrote. “Be the person on the side of the climate and innovation, not the person hoping to make money on puts. Also, betting against Elon is historically a mistake... and the best product usually wins.”
Musk had thanked Altman on the platform in 2019, but Altman responded to Musks’s old post Friday with “anytime” and saluting emoji.
Meanwhile, Jason Kwon, OpenAI’s chief strategy officer, reportedly wrote in an internal memo to staff that OpenAI believes “the claims in this suit may stem from Elon’s regrets about not being involved with the company today.”