Elon Musk to testify in a case that could change the path of AI – KSL TV 5
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
Apr 28, 2026, 10:47 AM
Elon Musk arrives to the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump in the Rotunda of the US Capitol on January 20 in Washington, DC. Chip (Somodevilla, Pool, Reuters via CNN Newsource)
(Somodevilla, Pool, Reuters via CNN Newsource)
BY
KSLTV.com
(CNN) — Elon Musk spent part of Monday posting on his social media platform X about his lawsuit against OpenAI, its CEO Sam Altman and president Greg Brockman, and Musk’s claims in the suit that the ChatGPT maker deceived him and betrayed its original mission.
“Scam Altman and Greg Stockman stole a charity. Full stop,” read one of Musk’s missives.
But it’s not the people on X that Musk and his legal team have to attempt to convince this week – it’s the nine jurors chosen on Monday to hear Musk’s suit against his AI rival. As soon as Tuesday, Musk could take the stand in an effort to do just that, arguing OpenAI betrayed him and its original nonprofit mission when it created a for-profit subsidiary.
Their verdict will advise Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers as she decides whether Musk gets his wish: reversion of OpenAI to a nonprofit structure, the removal of Altman and Brockman from OpenAI’s board, and around $130 billion in damages to go back into OpenAI’s nonprofit foundation.
Beyond the remedies Musk is demanding, the trial threatens to derail one of the world’s largest AI companies – and one of Musk’s biggest artificial intelligence rivals – as it makes plans to go public as early as this year. OpenAI has consistently pushed back against Musk’s claims and says his suit is one based on jealousy and regret.
The battle between two of the biggest AI pioneers, Musk and Altman, could shape the future of the emerging, but already wildly influential, technology. OpenAI’s IPO is expected to be a blockbuster, and the money it raises could help it dominate an industry in which it had an early lead. On the other hand, if Musk wins, his own xAI company could set back a major rival and potentially leap ahead.
The trial has already been contentious, even before any testimony. On Tuesday, Rogers scolded Musk for his recent social media posts about the trial and threatened a gag order before the jury arrived in the courtroom.
Musk’s posts will “only make things worse,” she said. Musk agreed to limit his social media posts about the suit; Altman and Brockman similarly agreed.
And Musk could face other hurdles in his quest. Musk’s lawyers on Monday struck several potential jurors who harshly criticized their billionaire client, including one who referred to Musk as “greedy” and a “piece of garbage” in their pre-questionnaire form and another who said their partner’s job was “harmed” by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) cost-cutting initiative that Musk lead in the Trump administration.
“The reality is that people don’t like him. Many people don’t like him. That does not mean that Americans can’t have integrity for the judicial process,” Judge Rogers told Musk’s attorneys.
Jurors expressed few opinions about Altman, who was in court for jury selection. In the end, the jurors selected were largely those who said they had a neutral opinion of Musk or of AI.
Musk cofounded and helped fund OpenAI as a nonprofit in 2015, giving what he says amounted to at least $44 million in its first few years. But he split from the company in 2018 after an acrimonious power struggle. (Musk went on to later found his own AI company, xAI.)
A year after his exit, OpenAI created a for-profit subsidiary to raise more cash. In 2025, the company further evolved into a for-profit public benefit corporation, under the OpenAI foundation. Musk claims the shift betrayed OpenAI’s original nonprofit mission to develop safe, open-source AI technology for the public good – and that the company’s leaders, including Altman and Brockman, wrongfully profited from his charitable contributions, according to the lawsuit.
Microsoft, which Musk named as a co-defendant in the case, is accused of aiding and abetting OpenAI’s breach of charitable trust. In a motion to dismiss, Microsoft called Musk’s arguments “devoid of factual specificity and substantiation, repeatedly relying on unsupported ‘information and belief.”
But OpenAI says Musk himself pushed for a for-profit structure. Musk left the company because he was not able to assume total control, OpenAI said in a statement, and his suit is “motivated by jealousy, regret for walking away from OpenAI and a desire to derail a competing AI company.”
Hundreds of pages of emails, texts, call logs and documents submitted as evidence will shed an inside view of the case, both before and after Musk left the company – communications that, in many cases, take a far different view in private than public social-media declarations.
In one 2023 email submitted as an exhibit, Altman tells Musk he’s his “hero” but that he’s hurt by his attacks on OpenAI.
“I hear you and it is certainly not my intention to be hurtful, for which I apologize, but the fate of civilization is at stake,” Musk said in response.
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