Absolutely https://t.co/hd6rx0aF2i
– Elon Musk (@elonmusk) 27 April 2026
In 2024, Musk, a major early investor and co-founder of OpenAI, sued OpenAI, its CEO Sam Altman, Chairman Greg Brockman, and key backer Microsoft, claiming they defrauded OpenAI out of billions of dollars by turning it from non-profit to for-profit.
Now, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers has seated the nine-person jury on Monday afternoon and opening statements will begin tomorrow. The trial will be divided into two parts. The first part is the liability phase, which will last until May 21, when it will be sent to the jury for an advisory verdict. Then, the judge will begin the treatment phase. Several influential figures in the AI industry are expected to be called to testify, including Musk, Altman, Brockman and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. According to CNBC, both Altman and Brockman were in court for the first day of the trial.
In the meantime, here’s everything you need to know.
What happened between Elon Musk and OpenAI?
When OpenAI was founded as a non-profit AI lab in 2015, Elon Musk was one of its co-founders and a major early investor.
Then, Musk left the company in 2018. Before his departure, according to emails presented in court, Musk had shared his opinion that “OpenAI is on a path to certain failure relative to Google” and that his company Tesla is “the only path that can even hope to hold a candle to Google.”
In 2023, he launched the competitor xAI, an AI firm, which he later merged with another of his companies, SpaceX. The joint xAI-SpaceX will debut on the market later this year, just months before the reported OpenAI IPO. Through xAI, Musk also made an unsolicited bid to acquire OpenAI for $97.4 billion in February 2025.
Shortly after Musk’s departure, under Altman’s leadership, OpenAI changed its corporate structure, first to a “capped” for-profit company in 2019 and then eventually to a for-profit public benefit corporation in late 2025. It also launched ChatGPT in 2022, which met with incredible success that catapulted the company to the top of the AI leaderboard.
What does Musk want from OpenAI?
According to the complaint, Musk filed charges against the defendants in August 2024, claiming losses of more than $130 billion for perpetrating a “fraud of Shakespearean proportions,” allegedly manipulating Musk into thinking he was giving money to a nonprofit, when the entire plan was to turn OpenAI into a for-profit company.
“Do you want to set a legal precedent in the United States that it’s OK to rob a charity?” Musk made the claim in a post on X on Monday. “I could have started OpenAI as a for-profit corporation. Instead, I started it, funded it, recruited key talent, and taught them everything I know about making a startup successful for the public good. Then they stole the charity.”
In an amendment submitted earlier this month, Musk said he would like those damages to be paid to OpenAI’s nonprofit arm rather than to himself. In addition to damages, he wants the court to void OpenAI’s for-profit conversion and to have both CEO Sam Altman and Chairman Greg Brockman ousted.
Just last week, Musk’s team dropped the fraud claims and decided to pursue only claims of breach of charitable trust and unjust enrichment.
How has OpenAI responded?
OpenAI denies the claims of fraud, arguing that Musk was involved in discussions in late 2017 to turn OpenAI into a profitable company. Musk reportedly wanted the company to merge with Tesla or give himself majority control of any profitable structure. OpenAI stated that they would not agree to Musk’s terms for the profit structure, which reportedly led to Musk leaving the company under the false impression that OpenAI had no chance of success.
“Motivated by jealousy, regret over walking away from OpenAI, and a desire to derail a competing AI company, Elon has spent years harassing OpenAI through baseless lawsuits and public attacks,” OpenAI said in a statement.
The company has previously accused both Musk and Meta of “unfair and anti-competitive behavior,” and claimed in a statement Monday that Musk coordinated with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to “undermine the mission of OpenAI.”
what’s at stake?
Further investigation into the two figures and their respective companies could reveal new details about both Elon Musk and Sam Altman.
Last year, Musk and his companies were at the center of one controversy after another. The billionaire’s actions as part of the Trump administration led to riots at Tesla dealerships. His unceremonious dismissal of people close to Trump and subsequent reports of continued ketamine abuse further enhanced his poor reputation. In March, Musk was found to have misled investors in his acquisition of Twitter, but his team claimed that he did not face a fair trial because “so many jurors had hatred toward Mr. Musk” that “the court was unable to forgive those who expressed negative sentiments toward him.”
Now his company, the combined
OpenAI is also reportedly considering an IPO later this year, although it has not been a good year for both the company and Altman. ChatGPT has been accused of facilitating fatal mental health episodes, including a murder-suicide and the suicide of a 16-year-old boy in Connecticut. The company has received a lot of public outcry for signing a deal with the Pentagon after Anthropic allegedly raised concerns about mass domestic surveillance and fully autonomous weapons.
A New Yorker investigation – recently promoted by Elon Musk at Shortly after its publication, Altman’s home in San Francisco was attacked with a Molotov cocktail.
<a href