TIMELINE-From Altman's return to Musk's lawsuit: the OpenAI saga

(Recasts throughout to add recent developments) March 1 (Reuters) - Elon Musk has sued ChatGPT-maker OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman, saying they abandoned the startup's original mission to develop artificial intelligence for the benefit of humanity and not for profit. The lawsuit comes as the startup at the center of the global AI boom recovers from the sudden ouster and return of Altman amid rising regulatory scrutiny of its relationship with Microsoft. Date Event Nov. 17 OpenAI board fires CEO, co-founder Sam Altman and President Greg Brockman quits after being removed from the board. Company names Mira Murati as interim CEO Nov. 18 Altman's firing was over a "breakdown in communication between Sam and the board," and not "malfeasance", COO Brad Lightcap says in an internal memo Nov. 18 Early investor Khosla Ventures says it wants Altman back at OpenAI, "but will back him in whatever he does next" Nov. 18 Some employees contemplated quitting if Altman was not restored as CEO by the end of the weekend, while others expressed support for joining his new venture, people familiar with the matter said Nov. 19 Altman discusses a possible return to the company, considers launching new AI startup, source tells Reuters Nov. 20 Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella says the Windows maker has hired Altman, Brockman and their colleagues to lead a new advanced AI research team Nov. 20 OpenAI appoints former Twitch boss Emmett Shear as interim CEO. Shear pledges probe into Altman's exit. OpenAI board approaches rival Anthropic's CEO on merger, for taking top job, sources say Nov. 20 Nearly all OpenAI staff threaten to quit and join Altman at Microsoft if board doesn't resign, according to a letter seen by Reuters Nov. 20 Some investors in OpenAI explore legal recourse against the company's board, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters Nov. 21 OpenAI says Altman will return as CEO with a new initial board of Bret Taylor, Larry Summers, and Adam D'Angelo. Brockman will also return Nov. 29 Altman says Microsoft will take a non-voting, observer position on OpenAI's board Dec.8 Britain's anti-trust regulator considers whether Microsoft's partnership with OpenAI has resulted in the creation of a relevant merger situation. Microsoft denies it has taken control of the company. Dec. 13 Axel Springer partners with OpenAI in a first-of-its-kind deal that will deliver summaries of the global news publisher's content in response to ChatGPT queries Dec. 22 OpenAI in early talks to raise a fresh round of funding at a valuation at or above $100 billion, according to media reports Dec. 27 The New York Times sues OpenAI and Microsoft, accusing them of using millions of the newspaper's articles without permission to train chatbots Jan. 9'24 EU antitrust regulators say Microsoft's financial backing for OpenAI may be subject to the bloc's merger rules Jan. 10'24 OpenAI in discussions with media firms CNN, Fox and Time to license their work, according to media reports Jan.19'24 The U.S. Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in discussions over which agency can probe OpenAI on antitrust grounds, according to media reports Jan.25'24 The FTC says it had ordered OpenAI, Microsoft, Alphabet , Amazon and Anthropic to provide information on recent investments and partnerships involving generative AI companies and cloud service providers Feb. 9'24 Media outlets report OpenAI hit the $2 billion revenue milestone in December Feb. 13'24 Andrej Karpathy, an AI researcher and one of the founding members of OpenAI, says in a post on social media platform X that he departed from the compnay Feb. 16'24 OpenAI completes a deal that values it at $80 billion or more, according to media reports Feb. 27'24 OpenAI asks a federal judge to dismiss parts of the NYT copyright lawsuit against it, arguing that the newspaper "hacked" ChatGPT and other AI systems to generate misleading evidence Feb. 28'24 The SEC is scrutinizing internal communications by Altman as part of an investigation into whether the company's investors were misled, media outlets reported Mar. 1'24 Elon Musk sues OpenAI and Altman, saying they abandoned the startup's original mission to develop artificial intelligence for the benefit of humanity (Reporting by Akash Sriram and Arsheeya Bajwa in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)