A lawsuit between two of Silicon Valley’s largest tycoons goes to trial on Monday in California, the end result of a years-long bitter feud. Elon Musk has accused Sam Altman of betraying the founding settlement of the non-profit they began collectively, OpenAI, by altering it to a for-profit enterprise.
Musk accuses Altman, OpenAI, its president Greg Brockman, and its main accomplice Microsoft of breach of contract and unjust enrichment within the lawsuit. Jury choice is scheduled to start on Monday morning at a federal courthouse in Oakland, with opening arguments from either side anticipated later this week. The trial is slated to final two to 3 weeks. Together with inner communications from Musk and key executives at OpenAI, the trial guarantees a who’s who of Silicon Valley on the witness stand, together with Musk, Altman and the Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella.
OpenAI has vehemently denied Musk’s allegations, saying that he agreed in 2017 that establishing a for-profit entity can be a obligatory subsequent step for the corporate and that Musk is “motivated by jealousy” and “remorse for strolling away”. The corporate additionally contests that Musk’s funding was an funding, stating that it was as an alternative a tax deductible donation to the non-profit and doesn’t entitle him to possession in OpenAI.
The case carries sizable stakes for OpenAI, which is anticipated to go public later this 12 months at about a $1tn valuation. Musk is looking for a spread of cures that embody the removing of Altman and Brockman and greater than $134bn in damages, which the tycoon says can be redistributed to OpenAI’s non-profit arm. He additionally desires to reverse the corporate’s restructuring as a for-profit entity.
Altman, Musk and a number of other different founders launched OpenAI in 2015 as a non-profit group, with Musk offering about $38m. Altman’s relationship with Musk turned bitter round 2017, after the billionaire grew impatient with OpenAI’s progress and made a failed try to exert extra management over the corporate. He left OpenAI’s board in 2018 and didn’t supply any extra funding.
Throughout OpenAI’s post-Musk years, it launched the wildly profitable ChatGPT, raised tens of billions of {dollars} from Microsoft and grew to be one of many world’s Most worthy non-public firms. Altman turned the face of the AI growth. Because the startup sought much more funding in 2025, it gained final approval from regulators to restructure its principal enterprise right into a for-profit company, although one technically nonetheless overseen by the unique non-profit.
Musk’s go well with alleges that Altman’s dealmaking and maneuvering of OpenAI break with the elemental mission of the corporate as a non-profit to learn humanity and quantity to a breach of contract. The go well with additionally claims Altman and Brockman unjustly enriched themselves by their management of the corporate.