SAN FRANCISCO — On May 25, 2015, Sam Altman emailed Elon Musk proposing a “Manhattan Project for AI.” The idea was to create a research laboratory in Silicon Valley capable of developing extremely powerful artificial intelligence and sharing it with the world “through some type of non-profit organization”.
Musk responded that same night saying the proposal was “probably worth a conversation.” Before the year was out, the two tech entrepreneurs founded OpenAI, a nonprofit that would later kickstart the global AI boom with the launch of ChatGPT.
When the OpenAI chatbot finally emerged, Musk had already left the organization, after a power struggle with Altman and other laboratory leaders. In 2024, he sued OpenAI, claiming that Altman took advantage of his money and betrayed the original agreement by putting profit before the public interest.
Continues after advertising
Next Monday, jury selection begins in the federal court in Oakland, California, in a trial that will decide whether Musk really was, as he suggests, Sam Altman’s “naive financier”. The case should expose personal disagreements and highly technical discussions that have shaped the development of AI. Musk, Altman and other heavyweights in the sector — such as Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, and Mira Murati, former director of technology at OpenAI — are expected to testify throughout the process, which could last several weeks.
Musk seeks more than US$150 billion in compensation from OpenAI and Microsoft, the company’s main partner. He also wants the court to remove Altman from OpenAI’s board and reverse the corporate change that transformed the company into a for-profit business.
The outcome of the case has the potential to shake up the race for AI in the technology industry. OpenAI, which has become one of the most influential companies on the planet, could be severely weakened at the very moment it appears to be preparing for one of the biggest IPOs in history. If Musk wins, rivals like Google, Anthropic and even international competitors, such as the Chinese company DeepSeek, tend to win.
If Musk loses, Altman is likely to further consolidate control over a company that has become synonymous with internal turmoil. And OpenAI, which already has more than 4,000 employees in offices around the world, will be free to carry out its data center expansion plan — a project that could consume hundreds of billions of dollars.
“This is just one front in an all-out war between billionaires for money, political support and, ultimately, absolute leadership in AI,” says Oren Etzioni, veteran artificial intelligence researcher and co-founder of the Allen Institute for AI and startup Vercept.
In the lawsuit, Musk claims that OpenAI — now valued at around $730 billion, operating as a for-profit company overseen by the original NGO — abandoned its humanitarian mission in exchange for profit. OpenAI counters and says that this narrative does not hold water.
Continues after advertising
Emails attached to the case show that Musk himself tried to turn OpenAI into a commercial company before leaving in 2018. As the AI boom took shape, he founded his own for-profit lab, xAI. Today, the company is under the umbrella of SpaceX, which could go public as early as this year, in an offering that could reach US$1.75 trillion.
The fight between Musk, 54, and Altman, 41, recalls schisms that have been recurring in the AI sector. Time and again, cutting-edge researchers have come together to build powerful systems and then split after disagreeing about the best path forward, founding new companies.
“It’s not common to see Silicon Valley companies pursuing a scorched earth strategy in court, but Elon is a case in point,” says Anupam Chander, professor of law and technology at Georgetown University Law School. “When the richest man in the world sues you, it’s natural to be worried, even if you think you’re completely right.”
Continues after advertising
A nine-person jury will decide Musk’s accusations against OpenAI. If he wins, it will be up to judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers — the same one who led Epic Games’ lawsuit against Apple, over control of the iPhone’s App Store — to define the amount of compensation and other measures.
Behind the scenes in Silicon Valley, the expectation is for a trial full of impactful scenes.
Shivon Zilis, former OpenAI advisor and mother of Musk’s four children, is on the witness list. Also expected to testify are Helen Toner, Tasha McCauley and Ilya Sutskever, three members of the board who, in 2023, surprised the market by firing Altman — a decision that ended up being reversed five days later, after pressure from employees and investors. They dismissed Altman precisely because they didn’t trust him to put the interests of humanity above the rush for results.
Continues after advertising
Mira Murati, who helped Altman return to command of OpenAI but was later named as a key player in the plot that led to his downfall, is also expected to speak to the court. Before Altman’s quick departure, she brought several complaints to the board about his management of the company, according to people familiar with the conversations.
Musk alleges in the lawsuit that Altman and Greg Brockman, president and co-founder of OpenAI, acted deliberately to manipulate and deceive him. According to him, the two assured that OpenAI would follow a safer path than that of profit-oriented giants such as Google and Microsoft — and, in doing so, convinced him to donate tens of millions of dollars to the non-profit entity.
The lawsuit asks OpenAI to pay tens of billions of dollars in damages. In a recent update, Musk changed the request so that this money goes to the non-profit organization linked to OpenAI itself, and not to him.
Continues after advertising
“He is asking the courts to return everything that was taken from a public interest organization — and ensure that those responsible can never do it again,” Marc Toberoff, Musk’s lawyer, said in a statement.
OpenAI claims that Musk just wants to slow down the company while he tries to launch his own AI project.
Process documents indicate that, in 2017, Jared Birchall, head of Musk’s family office, registered a company called Open Artificial Intelligence Technologies, which would be precisely a for-profit version of OpenAI.
“His own words and actions speak for themselves,” OpenAI wrote in a court filing. “Elon not only wanted, but actually created, a for-profit structure as the proposed new model for OpenAI.”
c.2026 The New York Times Company
