He is seeking $150 billion in damages from OpenAI and Microsoft<\/a>, with proceeds directed to OpenAI\u2019s charitable arm; he is also seeking Altman\u2019s removal from both the for-profit entity and the nonprofit board, and an order requiring OpenAI to revert to nonprofit status. <\/p>\nJudge Gonzalez Rogers accelerated the core claims to trial because she concluded there is an important public interest in their swift resolution.<\/p>\n
OpenAI\u2019s counter-narrative is pointed and supported by internal documents. The company argues that Musk was not deceived about the for-profit transition, that he was, in fact, actively involved in discussions about it, but that he wanted OpenAI merged with Tesla and wanted to lead the combined entity himself. <\/p>\n
When Altman and Brockman declined, OpenAI contends, Musk chose to leave and launch his own AI lab. The most consequential discovered document is a diary entry by Brockman, written in autumn 2017, reading: \u201cThis is the only chance we have to get out from Elon. Is he the \u2018glorious leader\u2019 that I would pick?\u201d<\/p>\n
That entry will be central to both sides\u2019 case: for Musk, it evidences a conspiracy to exclude him; for OpenAI, it evidences that OpenAI\u2019s leadership had legitimate concerns about Musk\u2019s ambitions for control.<\/p>\n
The witness list is a who\u2019s-who of the AI era. Both Musk and Altman are expected to testify in person. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is also expected to appear, as is Shivon Zilis, a former OpenAI board member who is also the mother of four of Musk\u2019s children. <\/p>\n
OpenAI\u2019s lawyers have indicated they will argue that Zilis funnelled information about OpenAI to Musk during the period he was no longer on the board, a claim that, if established, would put the personal and corporate dimensions of the story in the same frame. <\/p>\n
Depending on how the plaintiffs sequence their witnesses, Musk could be called to the stand as early as Tuesday.<\/p>\n
The pre-trial rulings have gone significantly against Musk. He initially sought more than $100 billion in damages for himself personally; after rulings narrowed the available claims, he abandoned personal damages and now seeks the $150 billion to be paid to OpenAI\u2019s charitable arm. <\/p>\n
The judge has ruled that Musk cannot be questioned during the trial about alleged ketamine use, a ruling that limits one line of attack on his credibility, but has allowed questioning about his attendance at the 2017 Burning Man festival and about his relationship with Zilis. <\/p>\n
The trial also carries personal exposure for Musk that goes beyond the legal outcome: last month, a separate jury held him liable for defrauding investors during his $44 billion Twitter acquisition in 2022, and any damaging testimony about his business conduct in this trial will surface during SpaceX\u2019s planned IPO this summer.<\/p>\n
The stakes for OpenAI are existential in a specific sense. If Judge Gonzalez Rogers finds for Musk and orders OpenAI to unwind its for-profit conversion, the company\u2019s ability to raise capital, pursue its planned IPO at a potential $1 trillion valuation, and operate as a commercial enterprise would be directly threatened. <\/p>\n
OpenAI has nearly one billion weekly active users, is valued at $852 billion in its most recent round, and has just closed a $122 billion funding round. Microsoft holds a 27% stake in the public benefit corporation. All of that structure depends on the for-profit conversion that Musk is asking the court to reverse. <\/p>\n
The case is also, as NPR\u2019s Casey Newton observed, a clash between \u201ctwo enormous personalities\u201d whose public feud has been one of the defining dramas of the AI era, from Musk\u2019s $97.4 billion offer to buy OpenAI in February 2025 (Altman countered by offering to buy X for $9.74 billion) to their competing posts on X before the trial began. <\/p>\n
\u201cCan\u2019t wait to start the trial,\u201d Musk posted in January. <\/p>\n
\u201cReally excited to get Elon under oath in a few months, Christmas in April!\u201d Altman responded in February.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A four-week federal case over OpenAI\u2019s soul, a diary entry, $150 billion in claimed damages, and the question…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":288478,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[143,145,144],"class_list":["post-288477","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288477","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=288477"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288477\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/288478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=288477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=288477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=288477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}