Elon Musk declared on Tuesday (28) that his legal action against OpenAI and its directors goes far beyond a single company and concerns the future of a technology that “could also kill us all”.
Musk accused OpenAI, its CEO Sam Altman and President Greg Brockman of misleading him and betraying OpenAI’s original non-profit mission.
His lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California seeks $130 billion in damages from OpenAI and wants the company to return to a nonprofit structure and remove Altman and Brockman from its board.
“I have extreme concerns about AI,” Musk, who has his own AI company, said on the stand in an Oakland, California, court. AI can bring prosperity to everyone, but it can also lead to dire consequences for humanity, he said.
“We don’t want a ‘Terminator’ style ending,” he said.
The trial threatens to harm one of the world’s largest AI companies — and one of Musk’s main rivals in the artificial intelligence sector — just as it plans to go public later this year. OpenAI has consistently refuted Musk’s claims and claims that his lawsuit is based on envy and regret.
“We are here now because Mr. Musk turned out to be completely wrong about OpenAI. We are here now because Mr. Musk now competes with OpenAI,” OpenAI lead attorney Bill Savitt said in his opening statement Tuesday. “As a competitor, Mr. Musk will do everything he can to attack OpenAI.”
The jury’s verdict will serve as guidance for Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in deciding whether Musk will get his wish: the reversion of OpenAI to a nonprofit structure, the removal of Altman and Brockman from the OpenAI board, and about $130 billion in compensation to go to OpenAI’s nonprofit foundation.
In addition to the measures that Musk is demanding, the process threatens to harm one of the largest AI companies in the world — and one of Musk’s biggest rivals in the artificial intelligence sector —, which plans to go public later this year. OpenAI has consistently refuted Musk’s claims and claims that his lawsuit is based on envy and regret.
The battle between two of AI’s biggest pioneers, Musk and Altman, could shape the future of this emerging but already extremely influential technology. OpenAI’s IPO (initial public offering) is expected to be a huge success, and the money raised could help it dominate an industry in which it already had a head start.
On the other hand, if Musk wins, his own company, xAI, could undercut a major rival and potentially take a leap forward.
The trial was already controversial even before any testimony.
Musk spent part of Monday posting on his social media platform
“Con artist Altman and Greg Stockman stole from a charity. Period,” one of Musk’s messages read.
Rogers chided Musk on Tuesday morning for his recent social media posts about the trial and threatened to impose a gag order before the jury arrived in court.
Musk’s posts are “only going to make things worse,” she said. Musk agreed to limit his social media posts about the lawsuit; Altman and Brockman similarly agreed.
Furthermore, Musk may face other obstacles on this journey.
On Monday, Musk’s lawyers turned away several potential jurors who were harshly critical of their billionaire client, including one who referred to Musk as “greedy” and a “piece of trash” on his pre-questionnaire form, and another who said his partner’s job was “harmed” by the DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) cost-cutting initiative led by Musk in the Trump administration.
“The reality is that people don’t like him. A lot of people don’t like him. That doesn’t mean Americans can’t have integrity in the judicial process,” Judge Rogers told Musk’s lawyers.
Jurors expressed few opinions about Altman, who was in the courtroom for jury selection. In the end, the jurors selected were largely those who said they had a neutral opinion about Musk or AI.
Emails, texts, call logs and more
Musk co-founded and helped fund OpenAI as a nonprofit in 2015, donating what he says was at least $44 million in the early years. But he parted ways with the company in 2018 after a bitter power struggle. Musk later founded his own AI company, xAI.
A year after his departure, OpenAI created a for-profit subsidiary to raise more financial resources. In 2025, the company further evolved into a for-profit public benefit corporation under the umbrella of the OpenAI Foundation.
Musk alleges that the move 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, improperly profited from their charitable contributions, according to the lawsuit.
Microsoft, which Musk cited as a co-defendant in the case, is accused of aiding and abetting OpenAI’s breach of charitable trust.
OpenAI, its executives Sam Altman and Greg Brockman, and investor Microsoft “have enriched themselves, become more powerful, and violated the basic principles upon which the charity was founded,” Musk’s lawyer, Steven Molo, alleged in his opening statement on Tuesday.
In initial discussions, Musk and others talked about OpenAI’s structure and whether it should be a for-profit company, Molo said.
Musk stepped away from the board because he had “matters to attend to in his other businesses” when OpenAI reached a deal with Microsoft that, fundamentally, meant that OpenAI was “no longer operating for the good of humanity as a whole,” Molo added.
In a motion to dismiss filed before the trial began, Microsoft called Musk’s arguments “devoid of factual specificity and substantiation, repeatedly relying on unsubstantiated ‘information and beliefs’.”
But OpenAI claims that it was Musk himself who pushed for a for-profit structure. Musk left the company because he was unable to take full control, OpenAI said in a statement, and his legal action is “motivated by envy, regret over walking away from OpenAI, and a desire to harm a competing AI company.”
When OpenAI realized it needed more resources for computing power and drew up plans for a for-profit subsidiary, Musk wanted full control, OpenAI lead attorney Bill Savitt said in his opening statement. When others didn’t agree, Musk left the company.
“We’re here because Mr. Musk didn’t get what he wanted at OpenAI. My clients had the audacity to move forward and succeed without him. Mr. Musk may not like it, but that’s not grounds for a lawsuit,” Savitt said.
Hundreds of pages of emails, text messages, call logs and documents presented as evidence will reveal the behind-the-scenes story of the case, both before and after Musk left the company — communications that, in many cases, present a very different view in private than public statements on social media.
In a 2023 email presented as evidence, Altman tells Musk that he is his “hero” but that he feels hurt by his attacks on OpenAI.
“I understand what you’re saying and it’s certainly not my intention to hurt anyone, for which I apologize, but the fate of civilization is at stake,” Musk responded.
