The outcome of the trial could affect the balance of power in AI, and jury selection begins on Monday.
Published on 27 April 2026
Technology tycoons Elon Musk and Sam Altman are set to face off in a high-stakes trial revolving around alleged betrayal, deception and unbridled ambition that has clouded the billionaires’ once-shared approach to the development of artificial intelligence.
The trial, which is scheduled to begin Monday with jury selection, focuses on ChatGate maker OpenAI’s birth as a non-profit start-up in 2015 before growing into a capitalist enterprise funded primarily by Musk, now valued at $852 billion.
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The outcome of the test could affect the balance of power in AI, a revolutionary technology that is feared to be a potential job killer and threat to humanity’s existence.
These perceived risks are among the reasons Musk, the world’s richest man, has cited for filing the lawsuit in August 2024, which will now be decided by a jury and US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in Oakland, California.
The civil lawsuit accuses OpenAI CEO Altman and his top lieutenant and a co-founder, Greg Brockman, of defrauding Musk by deviating from the San Francisco company’s founding mission of becoming philanthropic stewards of revolutionary technology. The lawsuit alleges that they shifted OpenAI into money-making mode behind his back.
Bitter legal battles can be reduced to a few pages in an executive’s personal diary.
“This is the only chance we have to get out of Elon,” wrote Brockman in autumn 2017. “Is he the ‘brilliant leader’ I would choose?”
Brockman’s diary entry is part of thousands of pages of internal documents revealed in court.
Musk said the defendants kept him in the dark about their plans, took advantage of his name and financial backing to create a “money machine” for themselves, and owed him damages for defrauding him and the public.
He also wants OpenAI Back to a NonprofitAltman and Brockman will be removed as officers and Altman will be removed from its board.
OpenAI has dismissed Musk’s allegations as a baseless case of sour grapes aimed at undermining its rapid growth and bolstering Musk’s own XAI, which he plans to launch as a competitor in 2023.
The lawsuit also carries risks for Musk, who last month was found liable by another jury for defrauding investors during his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter in 2022. Any damaging details about Musk and his business strategy could be especially damaging now that his rocket ship manufacturer, SpaceX, plans to go public this summer in an initial public offering that could make him the world’s first trillionaire.
