Cambronne and authors allege SpaceX Super Intelligence trained Grok on their books

The complaint

Cambronne, Inc., Lisa Barretta, Jane Adams, Matthew Sacks, and Michael Kochin v. SpaceX Super Intelligence Corp. (f/k/a SpaceXAI Corp. and X.AI Corp.); SpaceX Super Intelligence LLC (f/k/a SpaceXAI LLC and X.AI LLC); and SpaceX Super Intelligence Holdings LLC (f/k/a SpaceXAI Holdings LLC and X.AI Holdings LLC; successor by merger to X.AI Holdings Corp.), No. 3:26-cv-13187 (N.D. Cal.), was filed November 4, 2026, ECF No. 1 (45 pages), with a jury demand. The complaint describes Cambronne, Inc. as wholly owned by John Carreyrou, the author of Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup, who assigned the copyright in that book to it, so that Cambronne, Inc. is its legal owner. It describes Lisa Barretta (Pennsylvania), Jane Adams (Washington), Matthew Sacks (California), and Michael Kochin (Israel) as authors. The complaint refers to the defendants collectively as xAI and pleads that they are related Nevada companies that own and operate Grok, with SpaceX Super Intelligence Holdings LLC owning SpaceX Super Intelligence Corp., which in turn owns SpaceX Super Intelligence LLC. The plaintiffs state that they elect not to bring the case as a class action, because the Copyright Act lets each of them seek individualized statutory damages set by a jury. Two other suits filed the same day against the same defendants are Nos. 3:26-cv-13188 and 3:26-cv-13189.

The works

The complaint names the plaintiffs' books: Bad Blood; Lisa Barretta's The Street-Smart Psychic's Guide to Getting a Good Reading, The Book of Transformation, and Conscious Ink: The Hidden Meaning of Tattoos; ten titles by Jane Adams, including How to Sell What You Write, Boundary Issues, Seattle Green, and I'm Still Your Mother; Matthew Sacks's Pro Website Development and Operations; and Michael Kochin's Five Chapters on Rhetoric and An Independent Empire: Diplomacy & War in the Making of the United States. It says a non-exhaustive list of the plaintiffs' registered copyrights is attached as Exhibit A (the Plaintiffs' Works); Exhibit A is not available. The complaint alleges that Bad Blood, Pro Website Development and Operations, and one or more of each other author's works are contained in pirated online libraries including Books3, LibGen, Z-Library, and Anna's Archive, and that the works were also published in print and commercially available for purchase in physical form while xAI ran the book-scanning program it describes.

Copyright Office public records list registrations for these titles. Bad Blood is registered as TX0008666026 (September 19, 2018) and TX0009011228 (January 15, 2021), both with Cambronne, Inc. as claimant by written transfer. Lisa Barretta is the claimant on TX0007081621 (The Street-Smart Psychic's Guide to Getting a Good Reading), and Matthew Sacks on TX0007604650 (Pro Website Development and Operations). Jane Adams is the claimant on TX0001444050 (How to Sell What You Write), TX0006258092 (Boundary Issues), TX0000784747 (Making Good), TX0000672104 (Women on Top), TX0001601324 (Good Intentions), TX0003705005 (I'm Still Your Mother), TX0002081091 (Seattle Green), TX0000022439 (Sex and the Single Parent), TX0001105128 (Tradeoffs), and TX0002817246 (Wake Up, Sleeping Beauty). The records for The Book of Transformation (TX0007543467), Conscious Ink (TX0008524148), and Five Chapters on Rhetoric (TX0007044429) list a publisher or a university as claimant, and the record for An Independent Empire (TX0009325808) lists Michael Kochin with a co-claimant. The complaint alleges that the plaintiffs are legal or beneficial owners of every copyright on Exhibit A even where other individuals or entities are listed as claimants.

What the complaint alleges

The complaint alleges that the defendants copied, downloaded, reproduced, and used unauthorized copies of the Plaintiffs' Works in developing, training, fine-tuning, and deploying the Grok family of large language models, including by acquiring works from shadow-library repositories and, on information and belief, by torrenting; by scanning physical books into digital form and extracting the text; and by retaining and processing those copies. It alleges the infringement was willful. It further alleges removal or alteration of copyright management information from the works.

Claims and relief

Count I is direct copyright infringement under 17 U.S.C. § 501 based on pirated copies obtained from shadow libraries. Count II is direct copyright infringement based on scanning of physical books. Count III is contributory copyright infringement under § 501. Count IV is removal of copyright management information under § 1202(b)(1). The prayer seeks judgment for the plaintiffs; declarations of infringement, willfulness, and § 1202(b) violations; a permanent injunction against the alleged infringing conduct; an injunction against removing or altering copyright management information that would also require the defendants to preserve records of the provenance and processing of every copy used in training; an accounting of gains; statutory damages under the Copyright Act; statutory or actual damages under § 1203(c); restitution, disgorgement, costs, expenses, and attorneys' fees under §§ 505 and 1203; pre- and post-judgment interest; and other relief.

What comes next

The court's November 5, 2026 scheduling order sets January 19, 2027 as the deadline for the ADR certification and the Rule 26(f) conference, February 2, 2027 for initial disclosures and the joint case management statement, and an initial case management conference by Zoom on February 9, 2027 at 9:30 a.m. The order notes that the case was randomly assigned to a magistrate judge, who may conduct all proceedings if every party consents.