By contrast, Musk appeared to discourage OpenAI co-founders from taking a too-lean approach to fundraising, according to emails the company reproduced from December 2018.
The startup also said in its blog post that Musk sought to become OpenAI's CEO in 2017 as it was changing its structure.
In emails from January 2018 reproduced by OpenAI, Musk agrees with an unnamed sender who encouraged the startup's co-founders to rely on Tesla as their "cash cow."
CNBC has not independently verified the authenticity of the emails included in OpenAI's response on Tuesday, some of which contained partial redactions.
Attorneys for Elon Musk were not available to comment on Tuesday night after OpenAI published its response.
Persons:
Elon Musk, Musk, OpenAI, Sam Altman, Greg Brockman, —, Google's, Sutskever, Brockman, Altman, Tesla, xAI, Elon, OpenAI isn't, — CNBC's Jordan Novet
Organizations:
SpaceX, Microsoft, The New York Times, X Corp, CNBC, Elon
Locations:
OpenAI