Biden Administration Files Support Musk's Antitrust Claims Against OpenAI and Microsoft
The Biden administration's legal filings support Elon Musk's lawsuit against OpenAI's CEO Sam Altman, alleging antitrust violations in their partnership with Microsoft.
Former President Joe Biden's administration has unknowingly left Elon Musk a significant legal tool: two scholarly papers from the Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission. These documents address the potential illegality of overly-cozy partnerships between large cloud service providers, like Microsoft, and leading AI developers, such as OpenAI.
Musk is utilizing these filings as part of his ongoing lawsuit against Sam Altman, OpenAI's CEO and his former colleague. The lawsuit arises from Musk's claim that Altman betrayed OpenAI's founding mission as a non-profit research entity dedicated to ensuring AI technology remains safe and freely accessible.
Under Altman’s guidance, OpenAI has transformed into a $157 billion for-profit enterprise, described in Musk's recent court filing as a market-paralyzing entity. Musk is challenging the partnership between OpenAI and Microsoft, arguing it constitutes an unregulated monopoly. He contends that Microsoft’s $13 billion investment and provision of cloud server space grant the company exclusive rights to OpenAI’s technology, which includes products like ChatGPT.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Oakland, California, accuses Altman of racketeering and seeks to annul the companies' licensing agreement while pursuing financial damages. Musk's legal team points out that Microsoft stands to gain significantly from what Musk describes as a systematic takeover of OpenAI.
Musk's attorney, Marc Toberoff, noted that concerns over Big Tech monopolies surpass political affiliations, emphasizing that the DOJ and FTC's filings stem from principled concerns about the impact of these partnerships on AI development.
The DOJ filing, dated January 10, officially began investigations into Musk's claims that Microsoft and OpenAI breached federal antitrust laws through shared board memberships, a practice known as interlocking directorates. Notably, LinkedIn billionaire Reid Hoffman served on both companies' boards until early 2023.
In addition, the FTC’s filing, dated January 17, critically reviews significant partnerships in AI sector, highlighting Microsoft-OpenAI, Amazon-Anthropic, and Google-Anthropic. It emphasizes that Microsoft’s investment in OpenAI exceeds those of the other partnerships, thus raising significant concerns for AI technology, industry workers, and consumers.
On Inauguration Day, Musk’s legal team presented the FTC report as part of their latest court attachment, aligning their analysis with the findings from both the FTC and DOJ. Responses from Altman and Microsoft’s legal teams have yet to be provided.
