Facebook’s parent company, Meta, is supporting Elon Musk’s efforts to prevent OpenAI from converting from a nonprofit to a for-profit company.
As The Wall Street Journal reported, Mehta wrote a letter to California Attorney General Rob Bonta arguing that allowing the change would have a “devastating impact on Silicon Valley.” The company asked Bonta to take “direct action,” but said Musk and former OpenAI board member Shivon Zilis are “qualified and positioned to represent the interests of Californians on this issue.”
“If OpenAI’s new business model works, non-profit investors will receive the same for-profit profits as those who invest traditionally in for-profit companies, while also benefiting from tax breaks provided by the government,” Meta wrote.
Meta has become one of OpenAI’s big competitors in the AI market. Meanwhile, Musk, who was originally a co-founder of OpenAI, eventually spun off from the company to start rival xAI and took legal action, including seeking an injunction to stop it from turning into a for-profit operation. (Gillis is also a plaintiff in the Musk lawsuit.)
OpenAI released Musk’s emails and texts and argued, “He should compete in the marketplace, not the court.”
