The legal battle between the titans of Silicon Valley, Elon Musk and Sam Altman, begins this Monday, April 27 in California with jury selection, one day before the start of the arguments. Musk sued his former partner and Microsoft for allegedly enriching himself from OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT that was originally founded as a nonprofit. The tycoon, who was part of the board of directors until 2019, demands compensation of more than $100 billion and the dismissal of the top management.

First modification: 04/27/2026 - 16:29 Last modification: 04/27/2026 - 16:48

To display this YouTube content, you must allow advertising and audience measurement cookies.

An extension on your browser appears to be blocking the video player from loading. In order to view this content, you must disable it on this site.

Everything is set to make it an epic trial. Elon Musk, 54 years old and worth $780 billion according to Forbes, faces in court Sam Altman, his former partner who is 41 years old and worth $3 billion, according to the same source.

From being former partners to testifying against each other, in a trial that reaches to the ethical foundations of artificial intelligence and the founding of OpenAI, the company known worldwide for the creation of ChatGPT.

The core of the lawsuit lies in Musk's claim that, although OpenAI was conceived in 2015 as a nonprofit organization, Altman and Microsoft betrayed that founding principle by transforming it into a for-profit entity in 2019, just over a year after Musk left the company's board of directors.

That is to say, in 2019, OpenAI was restructured as a for-profit unit, but under the tutelage of the nonprofit organization, a figure that allowed it to accept funding from external investors while remaining accountable for the organization's original mission.

OpenAI restructured its organization again in 2025 to become a public benefit corporation, in which the nonprofit and other investors, including Microsoft, own stakes. The nonprofit owns a 26% stake, plus additional assets and warrants if the company hits certain valuation targets.

Jury selection for the trial is scheduled for Monday, April 27, in federal court in Oakland, California, one day before opening statements.

Influential Silicon Valley figures such as Musk, Altman and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella are expected to testify in person.

Shivon Zilis, a former OpenAI board member and mother of three of Musk's children, will likely be a key witness as OpenAI's lawyers argue that she leaked information about OpenAI to Musk.

The company that was born a decade ago, financed mainly by Musk, is today valued at $852 billion, according to OpenAI.

Layoffs and more than 100,000 million, among what Elon Musk asks for

Musk filed a lawsuit in August 2024 against Altman, CEO of OpenAI, and his right-hand man, Greg Brockman, after claiming that they exploited his name and financial support to create a "money-making machine" for themselves.

Consequently, it wants compensation of 134 billion dollars in damages to OpenAI and Microsoft, according to AFP and other media such as Business Insider, although Reuters speaks of 150 billion, according to its leaks.

The technology magnate, who invested some $38 million in OpenAI between December 2015 and May 2017, initially claimed only $100 billion in damages.

Musk's lawyers calculated damages by multiplying OpenAI's valuation by a portion of the nonprofit's stake that could be attributed to Musk's contributions, which they estimate to be between 50% and 75% of the total stake.

In addition, Musk wants OpenAI to become a non-profit organization again, for Altman and Brockman to be removed from their management positions, and for Altman to also leave the board of directors, among other measures.

OpenAI's lawyers accuse Musk of trying to damage the company's image to benefit xAI, his own artificial intelligence laboratory founded in 2023, and with which he competes directly since OpenAI unleashed the AI ​​boom with the launch of ChatGPT.

Microsoft, also sued after becoming the largest investor in OpenAI, denies having conspired with that company and emphasizes that the alliance occurred after Musk's departure.

Exposed emails

"This is the only chance we have to get rid of Elon," Greg Brockman, president and co-founder of OpenAI, wrote in his internal notes. The phrase is from 2017, when some managers and employees already saw Elon Musk as a figure that was too interfering in the company, although the validity of the statement in the run-up to the trial has been commented on in the national press.

The annotation integrates the thousands of pages of internal documents revealed in court since Musk sued OpenAI, which reveal the details of the bitter rift between the technology sector leaders.

After telling Musk "you're my hero," Altman tells him in a February 2023 email exchange, "I'm tremendously grateful for everything you've done to help; I don't think OpenAI would have existed without you, and it really hurts [expletive] when you publicly attack OpenAI."

Musk's response was: "I understand, and I certainly don't mean to offend, so I apologize, but the fate of civilization is at stake."

The Oakland court date comes at a sensitive time for the disputing parties. OpenAI faces unprecedented competition from rivals like Anthropic, and is investing billions in computing resources.

Additionally, it is preparing for a possible IPO that could value the company at $1 trillion, Reuters reported. A court setback would threaten to complicate OpenAI's plans for a potential initial public offering by raising questions about its leadership.

However, the trial also carries risks for Musk, who in March was found guilty by another jury of defrauding investors during his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter in 2022.

Any damaging details about the tycoon and his business tactics could be especially damaging now, as his rocket manufacturing company, SpaceX, plans to go public this summer in an initial public offering that could make him the world's first billionaire.

Read alsoSpaceX seeks to raise 75 billion in its IPO in June

Thus, two leaders and former partners in the technology sector who met in the laboratories of Silicon Valley will meet again in a California court, in a lawsuit that mixes accusations of treason, multimillion-dollar compensation and personal leaks. A lawsuit that will influence the development of one of the pioneering companies in artificial intelligence, whose inventions have already influenced the way a large part of the planet thinks and works.

With information from Reuters and AP

Related keywords

The content you requested does not exist or is no longer available.