Musk-Altman Trial Opens in Oakland

Jury selection opened Monday in Oakland for Elon Musk’s lawsuit against Sam Altman, Greg Brockman and OpenAI over the company’s shift away from its original nonprofit model. (usnews.com) (nbcnews.com) Musk says Altman, Brockman, OpenAI and Microsoft turned a public-interest research lab into what his lawyers describe as a profit machine after he helped found OpenAI in 2015. (usnews.com) (cnbc.com) Reuters reported Musk is seeking $150 billion in damages for OpenAI’s charitable arm, while CNBC said his complaint had previously pegged restitution at $134 billion. Opening arguments are expected Tuesday, April 28. (usnews.com) (cnbc.com) (money.usnews.com) The case turns on a basic corporate question: who controls an artificial intelligence lab that needs huge amounts of cash to build products like ChatGPT. OpenAI began as a nonprofit, then added a for-profit arm to raise money from investors including Microsoft. (nbcnews.com) (cnbc.com) OpenAI says Musk is rewriting history. The company argues he knew about plans to change the structure, pushed to control OpenAI himself, and now wants to slow a rival after launching xAI in 2023. (usnews.com) (cnbc.com) Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers narrowed the case on Friday, April 24, dismissing Musk’s fraud claims but allowing breach of charitable trust and unjust enrichment claims to go to trial. (money.usnews.com) (courtlistener.com) The witness list is expected to include Musk and Altman, and could also reach Microsoft Chief Executive Satya Nadella, current and former OpenAI board members, and senior artificial intelligence researchers. The trial is scheduled to run four weeks. (nbcnews.com) OpenAI completed a restructuring in October 2025 that kept a nonprofit foundation on top of a for-profit business, a change Musk says still broke OpenAI’s original promise. CNBC reported the company is also preparing for a possible public offering later this year. (nbcnews.com) (cnbc.com 1) (cnbc.com 2) The courtroom fight now doubles as a public audit of how OpenAI was built, who expected to control it, and what its founders promised one another in emails, texts and diary entries. (usnews.com) By the end of this week, the jury should be set and the case will move from years of online taunts into sworn testimony in Judge Gonzalez Rogers’ courtroom. (money.usnews.com) (nbcnews.com)