OpenAI accuses Musk of 'legal ambush'

OpenAI told a federal court that Elon Musk is staging a last-minute “legal ambush” less than two weeks before their April 27 trial. (bloomberg.com) In a Friday filing, OpenAI said Musk had abruptly changed what he wants from the case and was trying to “inject chaos into the proceedings” by adding new remedies after pretrial planning was already underway. Bloomberg reported the new demands include unwinding OpenAI’s conversion, overseeing financings and transactions, and directing any money he wins back to OpenAI. (bloomberg.com) The case is set for jury selection on April 27, 2026, in the Northern District of California before Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers. Opening statements and evidence are scheduled to begin no earlier than April 28, and the court has allotted 24 hours each to Musk and the OpenAI defendants, with 8 hours for Microsoft. (cases.justia.com) The fight started over OpenAI’s change from a nonprofit research lab into a company with for-profit subsidiaries and, later, a Public Benefit Corporation under nonprofit control. OpenAI said in a 2025 post that the nonprofit would control the Public Benefit Corporation and remain a large shareholder after the restructuring. (openai.com) Musk’s lawsuit says that shift broke the founding understanding of OpenAI, which he helped launch in 2015 and funded with about $38 million. In January, Judge Gonzalez Rogers said Musk could take fraud claims to trial because the record showed factual disputes over whether OpenAI’s founders misled him about staying nonprofit. (courthousenews.com) That January order kept the case alive after OpenAI tried to end it before trial. Courthouse News reported that the judge pointed to internal notes from Greg Brockman and other evidence that could support Musk’s claim that early assurances about nonprofit status were misleading. (courthousenews.com) The pretrial clash widened on April 7, when CNBC reported that Musk asked the court to remove Chief Executive Sam Altman and President Greg Brockman from their roles if he wins. OpenAI answered that filing by calling the new requests “nothing more than a harassment campaign.” (cnbc.com) This is also not the first time OpenAI has accused Musk of using the courts to slow it down. In April 2025, OpenAI countersued Musk and asked a federal judge to stop what it called “further unlawful and unfair action” against the company. (cnbc.com) Musk has argued that OpenAI abandoned its original mission and aligned itself with Microsoft in ways that favored commercial gain over the public benefit he says he was promised. OpenAI and Microsoft have denied wrongdoing, and OpenAI has said Musk’s actions are aimed at disrupting a rival he now competes with through xAI. (courthousenews.com; cnbc.com) Unless the judge changes the schedule, the argument over “legal ambush” now folds into a trial calendar that starts April 27 in Oakland. The next question is whether the court lets Musk pursue those late-added remedies in front of the jury. (cases.justia.com; bloomberg.com)