OpenAI launched a for-profit subsidiary a year later in order to raise outside capital, including more than $13 billion so far from its biggest backer, Microsoft. However, the non-profit entity, along with employees and investors, currently owns that for-profit subsidiary.

According to a report in the Financial Times, lawyers for Musk have contacted attorneys-general in Delaware and California to demand that a large stake in OpenAI be sold off in an open auction process.

His attorney argued they should provide a process for competitive bidding to determine fair market value of OpenAI's charitable assets to 'protect the public's beneficial interest,' as it is working on removing the control of its non-profit,