(Reuters) -Elon Musk's artificial intelligence startup xAI has sued rival OpenAI in California federal court for allegedly stealing its trade secrets to gain an unfair advantage in the race to develop AI technology.

The lawsuit filed Wednesday said that OpenAI was engaged in a "deeply troubling pattern" of hiring away former xAI employees to gain access to trade secrets related to its AI chatbot Grok.

"OpenAI is targeting those individuals with knowledge of xAI's key technologies and business plans-including xAI's source code and its operational advantages in launching data centers-then inducing those employees to breach their confidentiality and other obligations to xAI through unlawful means," the lawsuit said.

Spokespeople for the companies did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the complaint on Thursday.