Elon Musk and Sam Altman are headed to an Oakland courtroom on Monday, where a jury trial will begin over the breakup of one of Silicon Valley’s most consequential partnerships. The case turns on claims of betrayal, deceit and ambition that split the men who once shared a vision for artificial intelligence.
U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers will oversee the trial, and the jury will hear testimony from Musk, 54, and Altman, 41. Gonzalez Rogers has said the case belongs before a jury because the outcome may depend on whether it believes the people who testify and whether they are credible.
The trial centers on OpenAI’s creation in 2015 as a nonprofit startup primarily funded by Musk. The company later grew into a capitalistic venture valued at $852 billion, a transformation that sits at the heart of Musk’s August 2024 lawsuit against Altman and Greg Brockman. Musk says the pair double-crossed him by steering OpenAI away from its founding mission and shifting it into a moneymaking mode behind his back.
OpenAI has dismissed the lawsuit as an unfounded case of sour grapes. It has also argued that Musk is trying to slow the company’s rapid growth and bolster xAI, the competitor he launched in 2023. The fight now lands in front of a jury after years of accusations that began with the company’s early funding and ended with one of the most bitter feuds in artificial intelligence.
Musk invested about $38 million in OpenAI from December 2015 through May 2017 before cutting off support after what he viewed as deceptive conduct. He initially sought more than $100 billion in damages, then abandoned that personal claim and began seeking an unspecified sum to support the altruistic work of OpenAI’s charitable arm. His suit also seeks Altman’s removal from OpenAI’s board.
The broader legal backdrop gives the case extra weight. Musk was held liable by another jury last month for defrauding investors during his $44 billion takeover of Twitter in 2022, a ruling that shadowed the run-up to this trial. OpenAI’s own recent history has been turbulent too: its board fired Altman as chief executive in 2023, then brought him back days later.
The evidence will be argued in a courtroom, but the fight is also about credibility and control. Musk’s version is that he walked away only after being misled; OpenAI says he is rewriting history to punish a company that outgrew him. The jury is being asked to decide not just what happened in 2015, but whose account of the company’s past it believes now.