OpenAI vs. Musk: pre‑trial fight

OpenAI says Elon Musk is trying to change his lawsuit against the company weeks before an April 27 trial in Oakland. (bloomberg.com) In a filing late on Friday, April 10, OpenAI said Musk’s new proposals were “legally improper and factually unsupported” and would force both sides to prepare different evidence and witnesses days before jury selection. Bloomberg reported Musk newly proposed sending any damages back to OpenAI, unwinding OpenAI’s conversion, and putting future financings and transactions under court oversight. (bloomberg.com) The case is part of Musk’s larger suit against OpenAI and Microsoft over OpenAI’s shift from its original nonprofit structure to a profit-seeking model tied to Microsoft funding. Musk is seeking as much as $134 billion in “wrongful gains,” according to a January court filing described by CNBC. (cnbc.com) A federal judge in Oakland ruled in January that Musk’s claims could go to a jury trial instead of being thrown out before trial. Time reported that the suit names Sam Altman, Microsoft, and other OpenAI co-founders, and centers on whether OpenAI abandoned promises tied to its founding mission. (time.com) OpenAI and Microsoft have denied wrongdoing, and the April 27 trial is still scheduled to begin. Bloomberg said OpenAI told the court Musk’s latest demands looked aimed at “sandbagging the defendants” and “injecting chaos into the proceedings.” (bloomberg.com) The fight has widened beyond the courtroom claims in the complaint. On April 6, OpenAI asked the attorneys general of California and Delaware to investigate what it called Musk’s “improper and anti-competitive behavior” tied to efforts to block OpenAI’s restructuring. (cnbc.com) That letter, sent by OpenAI chief strategy officer Jason Kwon, said Musk had “repeatedly attempted — and failed — to wrest control of the nonprofit for his personal gain,” according to Bloomberg. The same report said OpenAI asked state officials to review whether Musk’s conduct violated laws governing charities and competition. (bloomberg.com) Musk co-founded OpenAI in 2015 and left before the company’s later commercial expansion. Reuters reported last year that the two sides had agreed to fast-track the case, setting up a spring 2026 jury trial over whether OpenAI’s corporate evolution breached commitments Musk says were made when he backed the lab. (inc.com) For now, the immediate dispute is narrower than the full case: OpenAI wants the judge to keep the April 27 trial focused on the claims already teed up, while Musk is pressing for broader remedies. The jury trial is still the next major deadline. (engadget.com)