Musk v Altman trial begins

Jury selection began Monday in Oakland federal court in Elon Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI, Sam Altman, Greg Brockman and Microsoft. (nbcnews.com) (cnbc.com) Musk says OpenAI abandoned the nonprofit mission he backed when he helped found the lab in 2015 with Altman and Brockman. (cnbc.com) (openai.com) Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers on April 24 dismissed Musk’s fraud claims at his request, but kept his charitable-trust and unjust-enrichment claims for trial. Opening arguments were expected Tuesday, April 28. (usnews.com) (finance.yahoo.com) Musk’s complaint values the case at $134 billion and asks the court to return alleged ill-gotten gains to OpenAI’s nonprofit side rather than to him personally. He is also seeking to remove Altman and Brockman from their roles and unwind OpenAI’s for-profit conversion and restructuring. (cnbc.com 1) (cnbc.com 2) The case is really about control of an artificial intelligence lab that now sits at the center of the generative-AI boom. OpenAI’s flagship product, ChatGPT, turned the company from a research nonprofit into one of Silicon Valley’s most valuable businesses. (nbcnewyork.com) (cnbc.com) OpenAI says Musk’s account leaves out his own push in 2017 for a for-profit structure and says he walked away after failing to win control. The company has called the suit baseless and part of a campaign to slow a rival while Musk builds xAI. (openai.com 1) (openai.com 2) That rivalry is no longer theoretical. CNBC reported that OpenAI is considering a public offering later this year, while Musk recently merged xAI with SpaceX in a deal valuing the combined company at $1.25 trillion. (cnbc.com) The courtroom fight now moves from filings and leaked messages to sworn testimony, with jurors weighing whether OpenAI changed course or simply changed corporate form to raise the money advanced AI requires. (nytimes.com) (openai.com)