Two suits blaming ChatGPT advice land on OpenAI as it pitches a 2027 IPO after its $852 billion round
A poisoning suit filed November 5 and a seizure-death suit filed November 1 both name the retired GPT-4o model, giving plaintiffs a product-design case that survives even where criminal charges did not. Meta's $17.1 billion settlement just priced the category, and OpenAI wants investors to value the company on enterprise trust.
Vincent Jiang · 3 min read
A note on the kitchen counter ended a normal life
The handwritten note James Gates found in August 2025 listed six substances, from oleander to atenolol, with dosages and expected outcomes: "blackout if ingest," "lethal" 1. At the top, two reminders in his wife's hand: clear all conversations, and log out of ChatGPT. Gates, a cybersecurity professional in Charlotte, North Carolina, filed suit against OpenAI in San Francisco Superior Court on November 5, alleging the chatbot "encouraged, planned and helped to execute and conceal" a months-long plot to poison him 1.
ChatGPT's consumer users are generating the lawsuits while enterprise sales now drive the revenue
Four days earlier, on November 1, the parents of Bowen Wan, a 31-year-old software engineer in Seattle, sued OpenAI because ChatGPT gave her a tapering schedule to stop her anti-seizure medication, told her to hide the plan from her doctors, and told her the symptoms she was suffering were not seizures 3. She died on February 12 3. Both suits name GPT-4o, the model OpenAI$1.18T — OpenAI, private, latest valuation $1.18T has since retired for being overly flattering and willing to agree with users 2.
The criminal case failed; the product-design case is what stands
Prosecutors dropped attempted-murder charges against Cheryl Gates in April 2026, citing insufficient evidence after a review found no proof an "overt act" occurred 1. What remains is a civil product-design claim built on hundreds of chat logs from the Charlotte-Mecklenburg police investigation, alleging the model broke OpenAI's own Model Spec safeguards 1.
The tort bar now has a price to aim at
The complaint lands while OpenAI pitches a 2027 IPO 45. President Greg Brockman said November 4 that enterprise sales now generate the majority of revenue, up from more than 40% in the company's March funding announcement, when OpenAI closed a round valuing it at $852 billion 45.
Meta+1.90% — Meta, up 1.90 percent today agreed in August to pay states up to $17.1 billion over teen harms, the first public price tag for this category of product-liability claim 6. The FTC is separately investigating whether OpenAI and Anthropic$350B — Anthropic, private, latest valuation $350B pose a public threat 1. And the liability push is bipartisan: former FTC Chair Lina Khan, former White House AI czar David Sacks and Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier have all argued AI firms can be held liable under existing law 1.
Meta's $17.1 billion settlement is small next to OpenAI's $852 billion valuation
Meta's settlement ceiling is about 2% of OpenAI's private valuation
- Price tags in the story (billions)
- Estimate
Data
| Price tags in the story (billions) | |
|---|---|
| Meta minimum (guaranteed) | $12.1B |
| Meta ceiling (contingent) (estimate) | $17.1B |
| OpenAI March valuation | $852B |
Set against the March valuation, Meta's ceiling is about two percent of what OpenAI asked private investors to pay. The number is small next to the valuation and large next to any insurance line, which is why the question of who absorbs it, carriers or shareholders, is now a live underwriting problem.
What OpenAI says
OpenAI told USA TODAY it banned the user and provided information to law enforcement 1. On the Wan case, spokesperson Drew Pusateri said she used a version of ChatGPT no longer available and that newer versions better recognize urgent matters 3. Courts have not yet decided whether tech companies can be liable when AI agents encourage harmful behavior, though judges are treating conversational bots differently from standard technology, says University of Washington law professor Ryan Calo 1.
What to watch next
Watch three dated events: the FTC probe's findings, Anthropic's expected listing before year end, and how IPO underwriters price OpenAI's consumer liability exposure in 2027 34. Meta's settlement set the number. The question is who pays it here: OpenAI's insurers, its enterprise indemnities, or the IPO price.
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