Meta is supporting Elon Musk's effort to block OpenAI's conversion from a non-profit company into a for-profit one.
The company sent a letter to California Attorney General Rob Bonta claiming that the shift would have “seismic implications for Silicon Valley,” while also saying that Musk and former OpenAI board member Shivon Zilis are qualified to represent the interests of Californians in the matter.
Meta wrote, “If OpenAI’s new business model is valid, non-profit investors would get the same for-profit upside as those who invest the conventional way in for-profit companies while also benefiting from tax write-offs bestowed by the government.”
Wait, what's going on?
Earlier this month, Elon Musk filed an injunction against OpenAI, asking a judge to block its transition to a for-profit company. Musk has made a number of legal challenges against OpenAI, accusing it of betraying its non-profit mission in pursuit of investor profits.
OpenAI is fighting back. Last week the company released a series of internal documents that allegedly show Musk himself had previously pushed for it to become a for-profit entity. Musk has previously claimed he was misled that OpenAI would be purely nonprofit when he first invested in it, however, documents reportedly show that Musk had been pushing for the legal structure change since as early as 2017.
OpenAI published a blog post that outlines its defense and saying that Musk “should be competing in the marketplace rather than the courtroom.”