Altman Effectively Ends Musk’s Hope of Preliminarily Enjoining OpenAI’s Sale

Last week during the hearing on Musk’s motion for preliminary injunction, the judge instructed Altman’s counsel to submit an affidavit if it is Altman’s assertion that he did not issue a “fund no competitors” edict.  Altman submitted the affidavit last Friday, dashing the already slim hopes that the judge will grant a preliminary injunction.  There is scant other evidence of an antitrust violation, never mind “irreparable injury.”  Here is the affidavit:

I, SAMUEL ALTMAN, declare as follows:

1. I serve as a director and as Chief Executive Officer of Defendant OpenAI, Inc. I have also been named as a defendant in the First Amended Complaint of Plaintiffs Elon Musk, Shivon Zilis, and X.AI Corp. (“xAI”).

2. I submit this declaration in connection with Defendants’ opposition to Plaintiffs’ preliminary injunction motion in the above-captioned matter. I have personal knowledge of the facts set forth herein unless stated otherwise.

3. In October 2024, OpenAI closed a funding round in which it raised approximately $6.6 billion. A subset of the investors participating in that funding round were granted access to certain OpenAI confidential information on an ongoing basis, subject to customary provisions governing their access to that information.

4. I understand that Plaintiffs claim that I told investors in the October 2024 funding round that their ability to invest in OpenAI was contingent on forgoing investment in OpenAI’s competitors, including xAI.

5. That claim is false. I did not tell any investor in the October 2024 funding round that their ability to invest in OpenAI was subject to that condition, nor to my knowledge did anyone else at OpenAI.

6. Instead, certain investors who were to be granted access to OpenAI’s confidential information on an ongoing basis were informed that OpenAI would need to terminate their rights to that information if they made non-passive investments in OpenAI’s competitors.

7. That restriction is necessary to protect against the misuse of OpenAI’s competitively-sensitive information, and I understand it is industry standard for that reason.

8. In explaining these restrictions on investors’ information rights, I did not say that investors would lose the ability to invest in OpenAI if they chose to fund xAI or any other competitor.

I declare under penalty of perjury under the laws of the United States of America that the foregoing is true and correct. Executed on February 5, 2025.

darryll k. jones