OpenAI accuses xAI of destroying evidence in ongoing lawsuit

Sam Altman’s OpenAI has accused Elon Musk’s xAI of destroying evidence during their ongoing legal dispute.

The two companies have been in court since August 2025, when Musk’s xAI filed a lawsuit against OpenAI. The maker of the Grok chatbot alleges that OpenAI engaged in systematic employee poaching and attempted to restrict competition in emerging AI markets.

“OpenAI said in a court filing Monday that xAI has failed to turn over internal documents to bolster allegations in its suit because it directed employees to use ‘ephemeral messaging tools’ that auto-delete communications after a certain time period,” Bloomberg reports.

According to the filing, xAI was aware it was preparing to sue and was legally required to preserve relevant communications, yet the messages were allegedly deleted.

OpenAI’s lawyers have also requested documents related to xAI’s claims that Musk “faced barriers to entering the generative AI market as a result of an agreement between OpenAI and Apple.”

As cited in the report, Musk’s company has “not produced a single nonpublic document concerning the substance of their allegations or that OpenAI could use in its defense.” “Plaintiffs have produced no emails, no text messages, no Signal messages, and no XChat messages of any kind.”

OpenAI is now seeking a court order that would prohibit xAI employees from using disappearing message tools going forward.