Elon Musk, in a broadening quest to control the tech world, is feuding with a growing list of Silicon Valley rivals, Axios' Zachary Basu and Erica Pandey write.

• He's now suing OpenAI — which he co-founded — and CEO Sam Altman, accusing them of prioritizing profit over "the benefit of humanity."

Why it matters: Troves of information about both Musk and OpenAI could come to light if the case proceeds to discovery, potentially damaging reputations and throwing AI companies into chaos.

👀 Zoom in: Musk is arguing that OpenAI's partnership with Microsoft violates its founding agreement.

• Microsoft, led by CEO Satya Nadella, has invested billions in OpenAI and is the only company with a license to use the tech behind GPT-4, OpenAI's blockbuster product.

The OpenAI feud pulled in even more Silicon Valley billionaires over the weekend, as they traded jabs on X.

• Venture capitalist and OpenAI investor Vinod Khosla posted that Musk's lawsuit "feels like a bit of sour grapes."
• Musk hit back, and Marc Andreessen took his side, tweeting: "Vinod is lobbying to ban open source."

🔭 Zoom out: This lawsuit is the latest in a growing list of Musk feuds with Silicon Valley rivals.

• Musk vowed last week to create a competitor to Gmail in response to backlash over Google Gemini's biased image generation.
• After news broke that OpenAI, Jeff Bezos, Nvidia and others have invested $675 million in humanoid robot startup Figure, Musk — who's working on a robot model at Tesla — tweeted: "Bring it on."

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When President Biden called the emir of Qatar and the president of Egypt on Thursday, his message was direct: Get me a deal, U.S. officials tell Axios' Barak Ravid.

• Why it matters: Biden, under increasing pressure from progressive Democrats, desperately wants a temporary ceasefire in Gaza. He sees a deal for the hostages held by Hamas as the only way to get it while maintaining his unwavering support for Israel.

Biden wants a deal before the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which starts March 10.

• As part of the framework presented by the U.S., Egypt and Qatar in Paris on Feb. 23, Israel would release about 400 Palestinian prisoners — including 15 convicted of murdering Israelis.
• In exchange, Hamas would free about 40 Israeli hostages, including women, female soldiers, men over 50 and men who have serious medical problems.
• The framework included a roughly six-week pause in the fighting in Gaza — one day for every living hostage released — as well as preparation for a gradual return of Palestinian citizens to the northern part of the Strip.

U.S. and Israeli officials say Hamas' response to the proposed deal didn't include a list of hostages who are alive, or how many Palestinian prisoners the group is demanding in return.

• Hamas is believed to be holding 134 people it took hostage during the terrorist attack on Israel on Oct. 7.
• 32 of the hostages have been confirmed dead.

🔎 Behind the scenes: In his call with the Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Biden said the U.S. is pressing Israel to agree to the deal — and urged them to push Hamas to do the same, two sources said.

• Read on.

A poll by the N.Y. Times and Siena College "offers an array of warning signs for the president about weaknesses within the Democratic coalition, including among women, Black and Latino voters," The Times reports.

• "So far, it is Mr. Trump who has better unified his party, even amid an ongoing primary contest."

The shares of Democratic primary voters who say Biden should be the nominee (46%) and those who say he shouldn't (45%) are roughly equal.

• Among Democrats under 45, opposition is stronger.

👀 Between the lines: "The historical edge Democrats have held with working-class voters of color who did not attend college continues to erode," per The Times.

• Biden got 72% of that group in 2020 exit polls, almost 50 points over Trump. Biden has a much narrower edge in this poll — 47% to 41%.

💡 Reality check: "Really? When was the last time Democrats lost women voters?" Democratic pollster Anna Greenberg tweeted.

• Michael Tyler, Biden-Harris communications director, said: "Polling continues to be at odds with how Americans vote ... Whether it's in special elections or in the presidential primaries, actual voter behavior tells us a lot more than any poll does."

Read the Times story (Gift link — no paywall).

D.C.'s cherry blossoms will hit peak bloom March 23–26, the National Park Service estimates.

• Why it matters: This is an early window, due to the capital's recent streak of warm weather, Axios D.C.'s Mimi Montgomery writes.

Average peak bloom has jumped up by six days over the past century to March 30, says the Capital Weather Gang. Last year's peak also started on March 23.

• Share this story ... Get Axios D.C. ... 30 Axios Local cities.

More than 1 billion people now have obesity — a sign of worsening nutrition that's also raising the risk of high blood pressure, cancer and diabetes.

• The global rate of obesity more than doubled among women, from 8.8% to 18.5%, and nearly tripled in men, from 4.8% to 14.0%, between 1990 and 2022, Axios' Tina Reed writes from a new study in The Lancet.

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In vitro fertilization typically takes more than one embryo to safely achieve pregnancy — and unused embryos are often discarded, Axios' Carly Mallenbaum writes.

• Why it matters: Alabama's Supreme Court recently ruled that frozen embryos created through IVF are children under state law, meaning fertility clinics could be held liable for disposing of surplus embryos. Other states are considering so-called fetal personhood bills.

🧮 By the numbers: More than 86,000 infants were born in 2021 with the use of assisted reproductive technologies like IVF, accounting for 2.3% of all births, according to CDC data.

• More than 202,000 embryo transfers were performed to get that number of infants.

Between the lines: IVF patients usually need multiple embryos to ensure just one healthy baby, Lucky Sekhon, a reproductive endocrinologist at RMA of New York, tells Axios.

• Many of the embryos used in IVF are frozen, and first must be thawed before getting transferred — a process not all survive.

Read on.

As President Biden left for Camp David on Friday (above), he toted a business book out last month, "Possible: "How We Survive (and Thrive) in an Age of Conflict," which promises "time-tested practices that will help readers unlock their power to constructively engage and transform conflict."

• Why it matters: Whether POTUS was trolling his doubters — or really planned to curl up with "Possible" — anything that's consumed (or at least brandished) by the world's most powerful person is interesting.

Some fun nuggets about Biden's media consumption are packed into a Washington Post front-pager today by Tyler Pager, "Out of the bubble," the first in a three-part series on "How Biden leads":

• "According to Biden's aides, some of the books he's read recently include 'Ten Lessons for a Post-Pandemic World,' by Fareed Zakaria, and 'Why England Slept,' the published version of President John F. Kennedy's senior thesis from Harvard."
• "Biden is not a recreational reader," said Ron Klain, Biden's former chief of staff. "He's a voracious reader of briefings."

🐶 "In his regular use of Apple News," The Post says, "the president sometimes comes across wacky trending stories, including articles on unusual animal behavior, which he then eagerly shares with staffers sitting nearby."

• "That has prompted a joke among aides: They muse about calling Apple CEO Tim Cook and asking him to change Biden's Apple News algorithm. That way, they say, the president would get a more curated feed — and more predictable information."

Read a "Possible" sample ... Go deeper: "Inside Biden's obsession with 'Morning Joe,'" by Axios' Alex Thompson.

The week's most interesting story, and it's not close:

• Tom Brady, at 46, beat his 40-yard dash time from the NFL scouting combine 24 years ago.

At 22, coming out of the University of Michigan, Brady ran 40 yards in 5.28 seconds. His new time is around 5.12 seconds, the Detroit Free Press notes.

• Watch the video.