A composite photo shows Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) CEO Summit in San Francisco on November 16, 2023, and Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, during the Viva Technology conference at the Porte de Versailles exhibition center in Paris on June 16, 2023.
Carlos Barria | Gonzalo Fuentes Reuters
A nine-person jury was seated Monday in the grand jury between longtime friends-turned-rivals Elon Musk and Sam Altman in federal court in Oakland, California.
Musk, who founded OpenAI in 2015, sued the company, Altman and Greg Brockman, OpenAI’s president, in 2024, saying they abandoned their obligations to keep the artificial intelligence lab non-profit and follow their philanthropic work. 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 lawsuit, including the removal of Altman and Brockman from their roles at OpenAI. Musk’s lawyers said in January he should receive up to $134 billion in “unfair benefits,” though he has asked to return those funds to the OpenAI charity.
Gonzalez Rogers chose to divide the trial into two parts: a liability phase to determine whether wrongdoing has occurred, and a remedial phase to determine appropriate damages and next steps. The judge will weigh in on the liability phase only, and his decision will be advisory, meaning Gonzalez Rogers will make the final decision on both phases of the case.
Musk claims in his lawsuit that he was “duped” and “duped” by OpenAI, Altman and Brockman and their promises to “charge a safer, more open course than the profit-driven tech giants.” He asked the judge to consider reversing the company’s recent restructuring, which cemented its structure as a nonprofit with a controlling stake in its for-profit business.
Of the 26 claims that Musk asserted in 2024, only two remain: unjust enrichment and breach of charitable trust. Musk’s attorneys dismissed two of the allegations, fraud and constructive fraud, before trial in an effort to “fix the case,” according to the filing.
The case is dropping as Musk prepares to take SpaceX public in what could be a record IPO and as OpenAI prepares for its expected public offering later this year. The two companies combined are valued at over $2 trillion on the private market.
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