Musk’s xAI sues ex-engineer for allegedly stealing Grok secrets to OpenAI

xAI has filed a federal lawsuit in California accusing former engineer Xuechen Li of misappropriating trade secrets tied to its Grok chatbot after jumping to OpenAI.

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- Li allegedly copied confidential Grok files, renamed and compressed them, and deleted logs to hide his actions

- He also liquidated $7M in xAI stock just as the alleged theft occurred

- xAI is seeking damages and a court order blocking Li from continuing at OpenAI

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The case highlights intensifying IP battles in the AI talent wars with Musk’s startup signaling it won’t hesitate to pursue defectors in court.