On May 25, 2015, Sam Altman sent an email to Elon Musk proposing a \u201cManhattan Project for A.I.\u201d He envisioned a Silicon Valley research lab that would build enormously powerful artificial intelligence and share it with the rest of the world \u201cvia some sort of nonprofit.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr. Musk replied that evening, saying the idea was \u201cprobably worth a conversation.\u201d Before the end of the year, the two tech entrepreneurs founded a nonprofit they called OpenAI, which would go on to launch the global A.I. boom with the release of ChatGPT<\/a>.<\/p>\n But by the time OpenAI\u2019s chatbot was created, Mr. Musk had left the organization after a power struggle with Mr. Altman and others at the lab. He sued<\/a> OpenAI in 2024, claiming that Mr. Altman took advantage of his financial resources and breached the lab’s founding agreement by putting commercial interests over the public good.<\/p>\n On Monday, jury selection is expected to begin in the federal courthouse in Oakland, Calif., for a trial to decide if Mr. Musk really was Mr. Altman\u2019s deep-pocketed dupe. The case will highlight the many personal squabbles and esoteric arguments<\/a> that have driven A.I. development. Mr. Musk, Mr. Altman, and several other key industry figures, including Microsoft\u2019s chief executive, Satya Nadella, and Mira Murati, OpenAI\u2019s former chief technology officer, are slated to testify in the trial, which is expected to last several weeks.<\/p>\n Mr. Musk is asking for more than $150 billion in damages from OpenAI and Microsoft, OpenAI\u2019s primary partner. He is also asking the court to remove Mr. Altman from OpenAI\u2019s board and unravel a shift the company recently made to operate as a for-profit company<\/a>.<\/p>\n The trial\u2019s outcome could upend the tech industry\u2019s A.I. race. OpenAI, which has emerged as one of the most important tech companies in the world, could be crippled just as it appears to be heading toward one of the biggest initial public offerings in history. A win for Mr. Musk would also be a win for OpenAI\u2019s competitors, from industry giants like Google to young companies like Anthropic, as well as international competitors such as China\u2019s DeepSeek.<\/p>\n But if Mr. Musk loses, Mr. Altman will continue to solidify control of a company that has become synonymous with corporate dysfunction. And OpenAI, which has expanded to more than 4,000 employees working in offices around the world, will be free to pursue a data center expansion plan that could cost hundreds of billions of dollars.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is just one front in a no-holds-barred billionaire battle for financial resources, government support and, ultimately, A.I. supremacy,\u201d said Oren Etzioni<\/a>, a veteran A.I. researcher who co-founded the Allen Institute for AI and the start-up Vercept.<\/p>\n Mr. Musk argues in his suit that OpenAI \u2014 now worth an estimated $730 billion as a for-profit company overseen by the original nonprofit \u2014 has abandoned its humanitarian mission in favor of monetary gain. OpenAI says that\u2019s nonsense.<\/p>\n Mr. Musk also tried to recast OpenAI as a commercial enterprise before he left in 2018, according to emails filed as evidence ahead of the trial. And once the A.I. boom arrived, he created his own for-profit lab, xAI. That is now part of the rocket company SpaceX, which is expected to go public as soon as this summer, in an offering worth as much as $1.75 trillion.<\/p>\n The feud between Mr. Musk, 54, and Mr. Altman, 41, is typical of the schisms at A.I. companies over the years. Several times, top researchers have come together with plans to build powerful A.I., before fighting over best way to do it, parting ways and launching new companies<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t typically see Silicon Valley companies engaged in scorched-earth tactics in the courts, but Elon is singular,\u201d said Anupam Chander, a professor of law and technology at Georgetown Law School. \u201cWhen the richest man in the world sues you, you\u2019re going to be worried about the suit, even if you feel that you are in the right.\u201d<\/p>\n A nine-person jury will decide Mr. Musk\u2019s claims against OpenAI. If the jury finds in his favor, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers \u2014 who oversaw Epic Games\u2019 lawsuit against Apple<\/a> over its control of the iPhone App Store \u2014 will decide on damages and other remedies.<\/p>\n Silicon Valley insiders expect high drama in the Oakland courtroom.<\/p>\n Shivon Zilis, a former OpenAI board member and mother of four of Mr. Musk\u2019s children, is on the witness list. So are Helen Toner, Tasha McCauley and Ilya Sutskever, three of the OpenAI board members who unexpectedly fired Mr. Altman<\/a> in late 2023 before he fought his way back<\/a> into the organization five days later. They ousted Mr. Altman because they, too, did not trust him to build A.I. for the benefit of humanity.<\/p>\n Ms. Murati, who helped Mr. Altman regain his spot at OpenAI but was later revealed<\/a> to be a key part of his firing, is also expected to testify. Before Mr. Altman\u2019s brief removal, she took questions about his management to the board, people familiar with the board\u2019s talks said.<\/p>\n (The New York Times has sued OpenAI<\/a> and Microsoft, claiming copyright infringement of news content related to A.I. systems. The two companies have denied the suit\u2019s claims.)<\/p>\n