OpenAI has stated that Elon Musk abruptly altered his claims in the lawsuit against the startup, launching what it describes as a "legal ambush" just weeks before the trial is set to begin.

In court documents filed on Friday evening, U.S. Eastern Time, OpenAI asserted that the new demands put forward by Musk earlier this week were clearly intended to "burden the defendants, disrupt court proceedings, and attempt to reshape the public narrative he has built around the case."

Musk sued OpenAI and Microsoft in 2024, alleging that the developer of ChatGPT had abandoned its founding mission as a research institution after receiving billions of dollars in investment from the software giant and planning to reorganize as a for-profit entity. The trial is scheduled to begin on April 27. Both OpenAI and Microsoft have denied any wrongdoing.

Earlier this year, the world's richest person requested the court to order the defendants to pay approximately $79 billion to $134 billion in "ill-gotten gains," a figure largely based on the surge in the company's valuation since its co-founding by Musk, Sam Altman, and others in 2015. A judgment of this magnitude would rank among the largest in U.S. legal history.

In documents submitted this week, Musk's legal team stated that if they prevail at trial, any damages awarded should not go to Musk personally but should instead be returned to OpenAI. Additionally, Musk has asked the court to reverse OpenAI's transition to a for-profit model, impose oversight on its future financing and transactions to ensure it does not deviate from its original mission, and remove Altman from his positions as CEO and board member of OpenAI.

In its Friday filing, OpenAI described these last-minute demands as "legally improper and lacking factual basis."

OpenAI's lawyers wrote, "The changes Musk proposes would require the presentation of evidence and witnesses entirely different from the case he advocated just three days ago."