Jury selection has begun in the Musk vs. Altman trial

Jury selection is beginning in a high-stakes legal battle between longtime friends-turned-rivals Elon Musk and Sam Altman in a federal court in Oakland, California.

Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers is overseeing proceedings starting on Monday between the world’s richest man and the CEO of OpenAI. According to this, nine jurors will sit and there will be no substitute. a march filing. CNBC is in the courtroom for the proceedings.

muskwho co-founded OpenAI in 2015, filed a lawsuit against The company, Altman and Greg Brockman, OpenAI’s president, alleged in 2024 that they reneged on their commitments to keep the artificial intelligence laboratory nonprofit and adhere to its charitable mission. OpenAI has repeatedly dismissed Musk’s lawsuit as “baseless.” Musk left OpenAI’s board in 2018, and five years later started XAI as a rival, merging that company with SpaceX earlier this year.

Musk has sought several different remedies during the case, including the removal of Altman and Brockman from their roles at OpenAI. Musk’s lawyers said in January that they should meet up to $134 billion in “wrongful gains”, although he has since asked to put those funds back into the OpenAI charity.

gonzalez rogers chose Divide the test into two parts: a liability phase to decide whether any wrongdoing occurred, and a remedy phase to determine appropriate damages and next steps. The jury will deliberate only during the liability phase, and its verdict will be advisory, meaning Gonzalez Rogers will make the final decision in both sections of the trial.

The liability phase of the trial is expected to last until mid-May. If OpenAI is found to be at fault, Gonzalez Rogers will hear arguments for the remediation phase, which is scheduled Will start from 18th May.

Musk alleges in his lawsuit that he was “hardly manipulated” and “deceived” by OpenAI, Altman and Brockman and their promises to “build a safer, more open curriculum than the profit-driven tech giants.” They have asked the judge to consider voiding the company’s recent restructuring, which solidified its structure as a nonprofit with a controlling stake in its for-profit business.

Of the 26 claims Musk made in 2024, only two remains: Unjust enrichment and breach of charitable trust. Musk’s lawyer two claims rejectedfraud and constructive fraud, according to a filing, in an effort to “streamline the case” ahead of trial.

The testing comes as Musk prepares to take SpaceX public in a record IPO and OpenAI prepares for its expected public offering later this year. The combined value of the two companies in private markets is more than $2 trillion.

— CNBC’s Lora Kolodny contributed to this report.

Watch: Elon Musk and Sam Altman go to court next week – here’s what to expect from the lawsuit