Elon Musk has been handed double losses in lawsuits against United States President Donald Trump and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Donald Trump was awarded a $10 million settlement for being de-platformed by the platform, but court rulings show that Musk contradicted his lawsuit against OpenAI by making an unofficial $97.4 billion bid.
Elon Musk’s motive in his bid for OpenAI is now being called into question and is coming at a time when the platform is expected to pay out $10 million to the President of the United States of America, following the acquisition from Jack Dorsey.
Elon Musk inherited the lawsuit
According to the court filing, the Elon Musk-led platform is expected to pay Trump $10 million for being kicked off the platform after the Capitol attacks that happened on January 6, 2021. The lawsuit was filed while Jack Dorsey was still in charge, with Elon Musk reinstating Trump’s account after he acquired the platform. It was the moment their blossoming friendship started, with the former spending about $250 million on the latter’s re-election campaign.
However, the friendship did not stop Trump’s legal team from going ahead with the lawsuit, even though there were chatters of it being dropped at a time. The $10 million settlement will be the second that the President is receiving with both incidents tied to the Capitol attack in 2021. Meta had been previously found guilty for the same incident, with the judge ruling on a $25 million settlement for suspending Trump’s account. The President is expected to pursue a related lawsuit against Google for being banned from YouTube for the same offense.
Altman edges Musk in court ruling
OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman filed a lawsuit on February 12, challenging Musk’s intention to purchase the company, noting that his intentions go against a previous suit where he said the company should not be converted for private gain. With Elon Musk making an all-cash bid to take over the company, Sam Altman was quick to point out the contradiction.
The lawsuit filed by Musk had been questioned by Judge Gonzalez Rogers who claimed that Musk was overstretching the fact that he would suffer irreparable harm if the company was restructured. Musk’s lawsuit requests that the court halt the for-profit move because it didn’t align with the goal of the platform from the beginning. Now, the artificial intelligence company’s lawyers are pointing out the contradiction, with its CEO mentioning that Musk wants to use the lawsuit to slow the process.