xAI ended public benefit corporation status amid battle with OpenAI: report

[Artificial Intelligence AI Assistant Apps - DeepSeek, xAI Grok, OpenAI ChatGPT]

Elon Musk's xAI quietly ended its public benefit corporation status late last year, amid its founder's ongoing battle with OpenAI, CNBC reported.

The public benefit status, which made xAI obligated to deliver environmental and social benefits, was ended in November 2024, the news outlet added [https://www.cnbc.com/2025/08/25/elon-musk-xai-dropped-public-benefit-corp-status-while-fighting-openai.html], citing Nevada public records. The news outlet also noted that when xAI merged [https://seekingalpha.com/news/4426668-elon-musk-says-xai-has-acquired-x-in-all-stock-deal] with the social network X in an all-stock deal in March, it did so without its public benefit corporation status.

Maker of the Grok chatbot, xAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Seeking Alpha.

Musk, who also heads up Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/TSLA]) and SpaceX, co-founded OpenAI in 2015 but left in 2018. Since then, he has criticized the organization's shift toward commercialization, arguing it diverges from its original mission to develop AI for societal benefit.

The 54-year-old Musk and his lawyers filed an injunction in November 2024 in an effort to stop OpenAI's conversion to a for-profit structure. The injunction also attempted to prevent OpenAI from engaging in what Musk's lawyers claimed was anticompetitive behavior.

He is suing OpenAI for allegedly putting “profit over humanity.” The lawsuit was recently [https://seekingalpha.com/news/4295683-microsoft-now-targeted-as-elon-musk-amends-openai-lawsuit] amended to include Microsoft (MSFT [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/MSFT]) and several other parties, including LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman and Dee Templeton, a current Microsoft executive who previously worked at OpenAI.

In April, OpenAI countersued [https://seekingalpha.com/news/4429971-chatgpt-maker-openai-countersues-elon-musk-for-relentless-harassment] Musk for relentless harassment. Prior to OpenAI's lawsuit, Musk made [https://seekingalpha.com/news/4408066-musk-led-group-offer-for-openai-is-all-cash-letter-of-intent-reveals] an unsolicited $97.4B bid for the non-profit entity that controls OpenAI. (Last week, Musk said [https://seekingalpha.com/news/4488482-elon-musk-set-to-take-on-microsoft-with-new-company] he was taking on Microsoft with a new company named, Macrohard.)

To prevent OpenAI from becoming a for-profit company, Musk requested a preliminary injunction; however, the federal court rejected Elon's request in March but allowed the case to go to a jury trial in the spring of 2026.

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