A legal and media circus is coming to an East Bay courtroom.
Jury selection in the long-awaited trial of Musk versus Altman et al. is slated to begin Monday in Oakland’s federal courthouse.
The jurors will decide whether Elon Musk was cheated and defrauded, as he claims, when OpenAI pivoted from a nonprofit to a for-profit entity in 2019.
At the core of the dispute is the question of which structure — and which individuals — are best equipped to shepherd a company that claims to be building a super-intelligent technology with global implications. When OpenAI leaders decided to split off the nonprofit OpenAI Foundation in 2019 and develop their core products under a corporate structure, Microsoft backed that decision with a $1 billion investment.
Since then, the technology’s capabilities have accelerated rapidly, and the competition to lead the market has only grown more fierce, with financial stakes reaching the stratosphere. Today, OpenAI is valued at a staggering $852 billion (opens in new tab) and is expected to go public this year in what could be the biggest IPO ever.
The trial will prompt reexamination of that 2019 restructuring, which Musk claims cut him out of a profitable piece of the future. It will also be an opportunity to hear from some of the biggest players in the AI industry on what risks lie ahead. The fact that the claim names Sam Altman as the primary defendant and not the corporate entity of OpenAI underscores the personal stakes involved.
The highly litigious Musk, no stranger to the halls of justice, is expected to be present and is likely to testify. Altman is also likely to be in court, as are OpenAI cofounder Ilya Sutskever, OpenAI President Greg Brockman, and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.
Lawyers for OpenAI have argued that Musk’s suit is petty and motivated by revenge. The company has sought to have the case thrown out, but the judge ruled that at least some of Musk’s claims can go forward.
For years, Musk has aired concerns that unfettered AI threatens the future of humanity. But these arguments have appeared less altruistic since he launched a direct competitor to OpenAI, xAI, in 2023. In court, OpenAI will argue that his claims stem more from an effort to hinder a competitor than from protecting the human race.
As Musk tweeted in November 2023 amid the board’s attempt to oust Altman: “I am worried about Microsoft having unfettered ownership of AGI.”
Still, Musk’s claim gets at a debate around safety and responsibility that is roiling the tech industry. A powerful segment of AI practitioners, including some staffers at OpenAI and Anthropic, share Musk’s concerns about the potential of the technology to upend society. Many of these safety advocates want their employers to be transparent and honest with the public about the risks AI poses to the economy and global democracy — even as these same workers stand to become very rich if their companies go public.
These tensions took on a threatening tone this month, when an AI-averse Texas man threw a Molotov cocktail at Altman’s house in San Francisco. Fears about AI and the potential for a violent backlash will underscore the commentary surrounding next week’s high-profile trial.
Opening arguments are scheduled to begin Tuesday; the court expects the proceedings to conclude in mid-May. The Standard will be in the courtroom and will keep an eye out for the following titans of industry, should they take the stand.
Sam Altman
As OpenAI’s CEO and the recent victim of an anti-AI attack on his home, Altman would be one of the most anticipated parties to testify. He will have to answer for both the decision to take OpenAI corporate and whether he is the right steward of humanity in the age of AI. Altman has been fairly visible in recent weeks, speaking at the World conference and hitting the tech podcast circuit. Additionally, OpenAI shelled out big bucks to buy the popular “TBPN” podcast; just how the show covers the trial will doubtless be a subplot with plenty of enthusiastic commentary.
Greg Brockman
One of three founders still working at OpenAI, Brockman famously quit in protest when Altman was ousted in 2023, only to immediately return when his colleague was reinstated. Brockman recently did an interview with the podcast “The Knowledge Project” in which he discussed Altman’s brief firing in emotional detail, recalling, “I just knew that this wasn’t right. Right after I hung up the call, I talked to my wife and I said, “Got to quit.” And she said, “I agree.” Though we don’t know if Brockman will be called to testify, we do have some sense of his perspective, since his personal journals were entered into the public court record during the discovery process. In 2025, Brockman and his wife were some of the biggest donors to a pro-Trump PAC, with a gift of $25 million.
Ilya Sutskever
Another OpenAI founder, Sutskever was the company’s chief scientist and a leading architect of its core technologies. In November 2023, he notoriously helped the board oust Altman before a messy reversal days later. In May 2024, Sustkever left OpenAI, stating that he was confident it would “build AGI that is both safe and beneficial under the leadership” of Altman and Brockman. A month later, he announced his own company, Safe Superintelligence, or SSI, with $1 billion in funding. SSI has been something of a mystery since then. Should he be called to testify, it would be a tantalizing peek inside the thinking of the enigmatic AI safety enthusiast.
Elon Musk
Musk will cause a scene in Oakland whenever he shows up. He appeared in federal court last month in San Francisco in a case in which he’s accused of misleading Twitter shareholders. His security team used a decoy Tesla to distract photographers trying to get a photo of Musk outside the courthouse, Business Insider reported — a hint at the hijinks that may come next week. Musk’s challenge on the stand will be to convince the jury that his concerns about AI and the future of the human race are genuine, and that his true intent is not self-enrichment and competitiveness. It should be quite a show.
Satya Nadella
Should he come from Seattle to testify, Microsoft’s CEO would arguably be one of the adults in the room. Microsoft has a 27% stake in OpenAI and thus a considerable amount of skin in the game in this trial. Nadella played a memorable role in getting Altman reinstated at OpenAI in 2023, and his explanation of Microsoft’s long history with the company, and its role in the 2019 transformation, could be revelatory.
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