{"id":553056,"date":"2026-04-27T09:58:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T09:58:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/553056\/"},"modified":"2026-04-27T09:58:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T09:58:08","slug":"elon-musk-and-sam-altman-face-off-in-court-over-openais-founding-mission-technology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/553056\/","title":{"rendered":"Elon Musk and Sam Altman face off in court over OpenAI\u2019s founding mission | Technology"},"content":{"rendered":"

A lawsuit between two of Silicon Valley\u2019s biggest tycoons goes to trial Monday in California, the culmination of a years-long bitter feud. Elon Musk<\/a> has accused Sam Altman<\/a> of betraying the founding agreement of the non-profit they started together, OpenAI, by changing it to a for-profit enterprise.<\/p>\n

Musk accuses Altman, OpenAI<\/a>, its president Greg Brockman, and its major partner Microsoft of breach of contract and unjust enrichment in the lawsuit. Jury selection is scheduled to begin Monday morning at a federal courthouse in Oakland, with opening arguments from both sides expected later this week. The trial is slated to last two to three weeks. Along with internal communications from Musk and key executives at OpenAI, the trial promises a who\u2019s who of Silicon Valley on the witness stand, including Musk, Altman and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.<\/p>\n

OpenAI has vehemently denied Musk\u2019s allegations, saying that he agreed in 2017 that establishing a for-profit entity would be a necessary next step for the company and that Musk is \u201cmotivated by jealousy\u201d and \u201cregret for walking away\u201d. The company also contests that Musk\u2019s funding was an investment, stating that it was instead a tax deductible donation to the non-profit and does not entitle him to ownership in OpenAI<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The case carries sizable stakes for OpenAI, which is expected to go public later this year at around a $1tn valuation<\/a>. Musk is seeking a range of remedies that include the removal of Altman and Brockman and more than $134bn in damages, which the tycoon says would be redistributed to OpenAI\u2019s non-profit arm. He also wants to reverse the company\u2019s restructuring as a for-profit entity.<\/p>\n

Altman, Musk and several other founders launched OpenAI in 2015 as a non-profit organization, with Musk providing about $38m. Altman\u2019s relationship with Musk turned sour around 2017, after the billionaire grew impatient with OpenAI\u2019s progress and made a failed bid to exert more control over the company. He left OpenAI\u2019s board in 2018 and did not offer any more funding.<\/p>\n

During OpenAI\u2019s post-Musk years, it launched the wildly successful ChatGPT<\/a>, raised tens of billions of dollars from Microsoft and grew to be one of the world\u2019s most valuable private companies. Altman became the face of the AI boom. As the startup sought even more investment in 2025, it gained final approval<\/a> from regulators to restructure its main business into a for-profit corporation, though one technically still overseen by the original non-profit.<\/p>\n

Musk\u2019s suit alleges that Altman\u2019s dealmaking and maneuvering of OpenAI break with the fundamental mission of the company as a non-profit to benefit humanity and amount to a breach of contract. The suit also claims Altman and Brockman unjustly enriched themselves through their control of the company.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A lawsuit between two of Silicon Valley\u2019s biggest tycoons goes to trial Monday in California, the culmination of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":553057,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[554,733,4308,86,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-553056","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-artificialintelligence","11":"tag-technology","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553056","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=553056"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553056\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/553057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=553056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=553056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=553056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}