Elon Musk’s not-so-friendly bid to buy OpenAI for $97.4 billion caught many in the tech world by surprise, but it’s just the latest shot in a yearslong battle between Musk and Sam Altman, who co-founded OpenAI together nearly 10 years ago.

After helping President Trump get elected, Elon Musk was poised to dominate the country’s A.I. policies. Then Mr. Altman sneaked into the White House.

Last March, Musk filed a lawsuit claiming OpenAI, a global leader in artificial intelligence innovation which has developed the ChatGPT chatbot, DALL-E image generator and other advanced AI-driven tools, breached promises made in its founding documents and prioritizes profit motive over serving the public good.