OpenAI has asked a U.S. federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit filed by Elon Musk’s startup xAI, which accuses the company of poaching employees to steal trade secrets. In a filing submitted Thursday, OpenAI described the case as part of Musk’s “ongoing harassment” campaign against the company he once co-founded.
The San Francisco lawsuit, filed by xAI last week, claims OpenAI engaged in a “deeply troubling pattern” of recruiting former xAI staff to gain access to proprietary information about its AI chatbot Grok, which it alleges is more advanced than ChatGPT.
OpenAI denied all allegations, calling them “false and unsubstantiated.” The company argued that employees are free to change jobs and that OpenAI has the right to hire talent from any competitor. “Under Musk’s leadership, talented xAI employees are leaving in droves, and some are coming to OpenAI to help advance OpenAI’s mission,” the filing stated. “Those employees have every right to go where they choose.”
OpenAI’s filing further accused Musk of using litigation as a distraction from xAI’s internal struggles, saying the startup is “hemorrhaging talent” to other firms. “This case is an attempt to intimidate OpenAI and distract from the failures of [Musk’s] own competitive AI effort,” the company argued.
Neither Musk’s representatives nor xAI’s attorneys immediately responded to requests for comment.
The dispute adds to a growing web of legal battles between Musk and OpenAI. Musk has already sued OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman over the company’s shift from a non-profit to a for-profit structure, while OpenAI has countersued Musk for harassment. Separately, xAI has sued Apple, alleging it conspired with OpenAI to suppress rival AI platforms—claims that both companies have denied and sought to have dismissed.
The escalating conflict underscores the intensifying rivalry within Silicon Valley’s AI race, where talent mobility, corporate secrecy, and massive investments have become flashpoints in the battle to dominate next-generation artificial intelligence.