{"id":290202,"date":"2026-04-28T20:09:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T20:09:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/290202\/"},"modified":"2026-04-28T20:09:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T20:09:11","slug":"musk-altman-show-up-for-opening-statements-in-major-ai-trial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/290202\/","title":{"rendered":"Musk, Altman show up for opening statements in major AI trial"},"content":{"rendered":"

By BARBARA ORTUTAY, AP Technology Writer<\/p>\n

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) \u2014 OpenAI co-founders Elon Musk and Sam Altman appeared for Tuesday\u2019s opening statements in a high-stakes trial revolving around a bitter feud between the former friends that could\u00a0reshape the future development of artificial intelligence.<\/a><\/p>\n

The bickering billionaires\u2019 early-morning appearances at the Oakland, California, federal courthouse foreshadow the start of a legal drama that is expected to brim with intrigue and potentially embarrassing details about the two tech moguls.<\/p>\n

The jury was elected Monday and the trial is scheduled to take three weeks.<\/p>\n

\"Elon<\/p>\n

Elon Musk arrives at the U.S. District Court in Oakland, Calif., Tuesday, April 28, 2026. (AP Photo\/Godofredo A. V\u00e1squez)\n<\/p>\n

\"Elon<\/p>\n

Elon Musk arrives at the U.S. District Court in Oakland, Calif., Tuesday, April 28, 2026. (AP Photo\/Godofredo A. V\u00e1squez)\n<\/p>\n

\"Elon<\/p>\n

Elon Musk arrives at the U.S. District Court in Oakland, Calif., Tuesday, April 28, 2026. (AP Photo\/Godofredo A. V\u00e1squez)\n<\/p>\n

\"Elon<\/p>\n

Elon Musk arrives at the U.S. District Court in Oakland, Calif., Tuesday, April 28, 2026. (AP Photo\/Godofredo A. V\u00e1squez)\n<\/p>\n

Show Caption<\/p>\n

1 of 4<\/p>\n

Elon Musk arrives at the U.S. District Court in Oakland, Calif., Tuesday, April 28, 2026. (AP Photo\/Godofredo A. V\u00e1squez)\n<\/p>\n

Expand<\/a><\/p>\n

Opening arguments began with Musk\u2019s attorney, Steven Molo, who quoted OpenAI\u2019s mission statement when it was created as a nonprofit for the benefit of humanity as a whole and not constrained by the need to generate financial enrichment for anyone.<\/p>\n

Altman and his top lieutenant Greg Brockman, aided by Microsoft, \u201cstole a charity,\u201d Molo said, \u201ca charity whose mission was the safe, open development of artificial intelligence.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the civil lawsuit, Musk accuses Altman and Brockman of double-crossing him by straying from the San Francisco company\u2019s founding mission to be a steward of a revolutionary technology. He is seeking damages and to fund the altruistic efforts of OpenAI\u2019s charitable arm and Altman\u2019s ouster from OpenAI\u2019s board.<\/p>\n

OpenAI has brushed off Musk\u2019s allegations as an unfounded case of sour grapes that\u2019s aimed at undercutting its rapid growth and bolstering Musk\u2019s own xAI, which he launched in 2023 as a competitor.<\/p>\n

In his opening statement, OpenAI lawyer William Savitt told jurors \u201cwe are here because Mr. Musk didn\u2019t get his way with OpenAI.\u201d<\/p>\n

Savitt said Musk used his promises to provide funding to bully OpenAI founding members and tried to take control of OpenAI and merge it with Tesla. In fact, he said Musk wanted to form a for-profit company and own more than 50% of it. In the middle of discussions about OpenAI\u2019s future, he added, Musk pulled the plug on $5 million quarterly donations he was making.<\/p>\n

There is no record, Savitt said, of promises made to Musk that OpenAI was going to remain a nonprofit forever, or open-source everything. What Musk ultimately cared about, he said, was not OpenAI\u2019s nonprofit status but winning the AI race with Google.<\/p>\n

Molo said the case is not about Musk, but rather Altman, Brockman and Microsoft.<\/p>\n

By 2017, about two years after OpenAI\u2019s founding, it became clear that OpenAI would need more money, and Molo said the founders eventually settled on the idea of creating a for-profit arm of OpenAI that would support the nonprofit. Terms were capped for investors so they \u201ccouldn\u2019t make infinite profit.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is nothing wrong with a nonprofit having a for-profit subsidiary, but (it) has to advance the mission,\u201d Molo said.<\/p>\n

Microsoft initially invested $2 billion in OpenAI. Then, in 2022, news spread that OpenAI had done a deal with Microsoft and \u201cthis was a horse of a completely different color,\u201d he said. It was a \u201cgamechanger,\u201d Molo said, that violated \u201cevery commitment\u201d OpenAI made not just to Musk but to the world. It was no longer open source, it became a for-profit company for the benefit of the defendants and Microsoft was going to have control, through licensing, of much of its intellectual property, Molo said.<\/p>\n

After opening arguments wrap up, testimony will begin with Musk\u2019s side presenting a tale chock full of alleged betrayal, deceit and ambition that caused OpenAI to pivot from its founding mission as an altruistic startup\u00a0to a capitalistic venture<\/a>\u00a0now valued at $852 billion.<\/p>\n

Musk, the world\u2019s richest person with an estimated fortune of $778 billion, is among the witnesses who will testify during the trial.<\/p>\n

Altman, OpenAI\u2019s CEO, is also expected to testify, along with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, one of the technology leaders who helped fund the late 2022 release of ChatGPT, the chatbot that unleashed the current AI boom that has propelled the stock market to record heights.<\/p>\n

Altman\u2019s court appearance likely made him unavailable to attend an Amazon event across San Francisco Bay on Tuesday at which both companies announced an expanded partnership.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wish I could be there with you in person today,\u201d Altman told attendees of Amazon\u2019s event in San Francisco via a prerecorded video message. \u201cMy schedule got taken away from me today.\u201d<\/p>\n

AP Technology Writer Matt O\u2019Brien contributed to this story from Providence, Rhode Island.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By BARBARA ORTUTAY, AP Technology Writer OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) \u2014 OpenAI co-founders Elon Musk and Sam Altman appeared…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":290203,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[1611,143,145,144,123949,2792],"class_list":["post-290202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-elon-musk","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-openai-founders","tag-sam-altman"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290202","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=290202"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290202\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/290203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=290202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=290202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=290202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}