Elon Musk is seeking ‍up to US$134 billion from OpenAI and Microsoft, arguing he deserves the "wrongful gains" that they received from his early support of the artificial-intelligence startup, according to a court filing.

OpenAI gained between US$65.5 billion and US$109.4 billion from the billionaire entrepreneur's contributions when he was co-founding OpenAI from 2015, while Microsoft gained between US$13.3 billion and US$25.1 billion, Musk said in the federal court filing ahead of his trial against the two companies.

OpenAI, Microsoft and ‍Musk's lawyers did not immediately respond to requests for comments ⁠outside business hours. OpenAI has called the lawsuit "baseless" and part of a "harassment" campaign by ‍Musk. A Microsoft lawyer has said there is no evidence that the company "aided and abetted" OpenAI.

Musk, who left OpenAI in 2018 and now runs xAI with its competitor chatbot Grok, alleges that ChatGPT operator OpenAI violated its ‌founding mission in a high-profile restructuring to a for-profit entity.

A judge in Oakland, California, ruled this month ‍that a jury will hear the trial, ‌expected to start in April.

Musk's ‌filing ‌says he contributed about US$38 million, 60 percent of OpenAI's early seed funding, helped recruit staff, connect the founders with key contacts and lend credibility to the project when it was created.

"Just ⁠as an early investor in a startup company may realize gains many orders of magnitude greater than the investor's initial investment, the wrongful gains that OpenAI and Microsoft have earned – and which Mr. Musk is now ‌entitled to disgorge – are much larger than Mr Musk's ‍initial contributions," Musk argues.

The filing says Musk's contributions to OpenAI and Microsoft were calculated by his expert witness, financial economist C Paul Wazzan.

Musk may seek punitive damages and other penalties, including a possible injunction, if the jury finds either company liable, the filing says, without ‌specifying what form any injunction might ⁠take.

While, the tycoon is suing OpenAI and Microsoft, the mother of one of his children is suing his AI company, saying its Grok chatbot allowed users to generate sexually exploitive deepfake images of her that have caused her humiliation and emotional distress.

Ashley St Clair, 27, who describes herself as a writer and political strategist, alleges in a lawsuit filed on Thursday in New York City against xAI that the images have included a photo of her fully dressed at age 14 that was altered to show her in a bikini, and others showing her as an adult in sexualised positions and wearing a bikini with swastikas. St. Clair is Jewish.

Meanwhile, California Attorney General Robert Bonta has sent a cease-and-desist letter to xAI demanding the company stop the creation and distribution of artificial intelligence-generated nonconsensual sexualised imagery by Grok.

"The avalanche of reports detailing this material – at times depicting women and children engaged in sexual activity – is shocking and, as ‍my office has determined, potentially illegal,” said Bonta on Friday. (Reuters/AP)