The Elon Musk vs. Sam Altman lawsuit will finally go to trial this week after the Tesla CEO accused the latter of betraying and changing OpenAI’s founding vision. This is the midst of the AI company preparing to go public, seeking to raise up to $100 billion.
Elon Musk’s lawsuit against Sam Altman over OpenAI set to go on trial
Elon Musk’s lawsuit against Sam Altman will commence trial with jury selection on Monday, April 27, 2026. It will be followed by opening statements at a federal courthouse in Oakland. Reportedly, the trial is expected to last only a couple of weeks (via The Guardian).
For context, the SpaceX founder is suing OpenAI’s CEO, Sam Altman, and President, Greg Brockman, along with OpenAI’s partner, Microsoft. Musk has claimed that the company betrayed its nonprofit roots by shifting to a for-profit model.
In the lawsuit, he has sought damages of up to $134 billion and also aims to fire Altman and Brockman. According to the report, Musk would redistribute the compensation (if won) to OpenAI’s non-profit section. During the trial, Musk, Altman, and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella will reportedly be summoned to the witness stand.
In 2015, Musk co-founded OpenAI as a nonprofit, hoping its tools would help humanity, donating roughly $38 million. However, X’s (formerly Twitter) owner left the company in 2018 due to power struggles and after his failed attempt to buy OpenAI’s controlling shares.
Subsequently, Altman sought funding from Microsoft, which helped further develop the company and ultimately led to the release of ChatGPT. Furthermore, he plans to take the company public later this year, hoping to raise $100 billion in public funding (via The Wall Street Journal).
This change from non-profit to for-profit structure has irked Musk, who is now suing all three parties. In response, Altman has claimed that Musk knew about a potential structure change for years. He added that the lawsuit is “motivated by jealousy” and “regret for walking away”.
Originally written by Harsha Panduranga on Mandatory.
