On April 27, 2026, Elon Musk’s trial against the leaders of OpenAI began in California. The billionaire co-founder accuses CEO Sam Altman and President Greg Brockman of turning OpenAI into a commercial entity and thus defrauding it. Musk demands that both of them be removed from their leadership positions. In addition, he expects to receive billions of dollars in compensation, which he promises to transfer to OpenAI’s non-profit division. Medusa tells why this conflict arose and what happened at the first meetings.
Elon Musk initially filed the lawsuit in February 2024 in San Francisco County Superior Court. However, in June of that year, the day before the first scheduled hearing, he said He pointed out him without explanation. Meanwhile, the billionaire reserved the right to file a claim again. What is and an act Literally in two months. But this time, Musk appealed the matter to the Federal Court of Northern California.
The essence of the accusations contained in 86 pages claimboils down to the fact that “Altman and his partners” betrayed OpenAI itself and Elon Musk personally. The billionaire argues that the company should have remained a non-profit company and conducted research in the field of artificial intelligence for the benefit of society. Instead, OpenAI’s management focused on making money from its developments. Musk describes what happened as “a betrayal of Shakespearean proportions.”
The lawsuit names the company’s CEO Sam Altman and president Greg Brockman, as well as several OpenAI entities, as defendants. These are the people who were involved in creating the startup and who continue to work at the company. Musk himself was also one of the founders of OpenAI and was an early investor in it. But he left the board of directors at the beginning of 2018.
Elon Musk requires Removal of Altman and Brockman from management of OpenAI and termination of the company’s commercial division. In addition, he expects to receive compensation for damages, he said Data Journalists, it may exceed $150 billion. This is compensation for the company’s leaders’ participation, according to Musk, in enrichment through his investments.
At the same time, the billionaire initially greatly exaggerated the amount he invested in OpenAI at the early stage of its development. Attracts attention Engadget edition. For example, in March 2023 He claimedWhich invested about $100 million. In May of the same year, he mentioned an amount half this amount. Before the trial begins It was about to Already about 38 million.
However, even if the court sides with Musk, the richest man on the planet doesn’t plan to keep that payout for himself. He wants to donate it to the non-profit organization OpenAI so it can continue AI research.
OpenAI has already changed its structure to attract more investment. But Musk didn’t mind
In its more than 10-year history, OpenAI has undergone two major restructurings. First really start up It was created As a non-profit research organization whose mission is to develop safe artificial general intelligence (AI) for the benefit of all humanity. In general, if you believe it Official website Company, this mission remains unchanged.
Two years after creating OpenAI, its founders came to the conclusion that further development would require billions of dollars of computing power. Therefore, it is necessary to create a separate business organization to attract investment – and Musk has agreed to this.
Moreover, in what was published on the OpenAI website, MentionedIn September 2017 he registered a new structure called Open Artificial Intelligence Technologies. It was a public benefit corporation – a for-profit company that made a profit from its products but must take into account the interests of the public.
With its help, Musk plans to develop OpenAI. However, the billionaire demanded full control of this business organization, including the position of CEO of the company and its controlling stake. After receiving pushback from the other founders, Musk left the position of co-president of OpenAI after some time, citing the possibility of… It has not been determined what happened to the business he founded.
In March 2019, it is still OpenAI spent The first restructuring, which led to the creation of a “commercially profitable” division called OpenAI LP. This allowed developers to attract additional funds for development.
At the same time, the profit of potential investors was limited – they could only get a hundredfold return on their investment. Any profits beyond this go to the original non-profit, which becomes OpenAI Nonprofit.
OpenAI has been around in this form for over six years. During this time, it was able to attract billions of dollars in investments, including from Microsoft, which became a major partner of the company. But at a certain point, this management scheme began to hinder the further development of OpenAI, despite the fact that in the fall of 2025 it became the most expensive startup in the world.
The company’s president, Sam Altman, is convinced that to achieve artificial general intelligence (AGI), it is necessary to constantly increase computing power. To do this – and for funding to continue – we need to remove the constraints on return on investment for investors. There were rumors that OpenAI would become fully commercial, but it abandoned those plans.
In October 2025 the company complete Second restructuring. In general, the management system has remained unchanged: the non-profit organization (renamed the OpenAI Foundation) still controls the commercial structure. But the latter not only changed its name to OpenAI Group PBC, but also became a public benefit corporation – like competitor Anthropic, for example. As Elon Musk originally intended.
Many jurors have negative opinions of Musk (they call him a “creep”). But the jury also included those who don’t like AI in general
Western journalists hope the trial will be exciting. In fact, during the testimony, both parties may reveal new, previously unknown information about OpenAI’s activities, and perhaps about Elon Musk himself. However, the first days were without any great sensations.
A panel of nine jurors met Monday to hear testimony from the parties. It turns out that many of the candidates were initially negative toward Musk. In the jury questionnaires, there was very rude language that people used to describe the billionaire, Notes Reporter for The Verge. For example, “a top-notch bastard” and “a greedy, racist, homophobic piece of shit.”
Musk’s lawyers objected to some of the candidates. “The truth is, a lot of people don’t like him,” Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers said in response. He added: “A lot of people don’t like him, but that doesn’t mean Americans can’t remain neutral during the trial.”
In the end, the jury included people who did not like the billionaire and those who initially reported a negative attitude towards artificial intelligence technologies. However, the jury in this trial is still out Lead Advisory role only. The final decision will be made by the judge.
Elon Musk was the first to testify in the trial. It is details Retelling His biography and shared his opinion on the development of artificial intelligence. In particular, the billionaire noted that next year artificial intelligence will become smarter than anyone.
Musk also told his own version of founding OpenAI. He noted that he is not opposed to creating a for-profit division, but wants to keep the nonprofit in the leadership role. You were supposed to create an AGI.
Musk later said investing in OpenAI was a mistake. “In fact, I was the fool who gave them free funding to create a startup,” Musk was quoted as saying by the Financial Times. “I gave them $38 million, basically free funding, which they used to create…a for-profit company.”
The billionaire’s lawyers showed correspondence that took place in 2017 between Musk, Altman, and Brockman. He discussed the idea of creating a commercial structure, which Musk rejected. According to him, a company cannot be a non-profit organization and at the same time enrich itself through its activities. “Either do what you want or continue developing OpenAI as a non-profit organization,” Musk wrote.
The billionaire will continue to testify today. He rules over separate Two-part process. In the first stage, the judge will determine whether any illegal acts have been committed at all. In the second, the form and amount of compensation will be determined.
The jury’s verdict will only be made based on the results of the first phase, which is supposed to be completed by May 21. It is not yet known when the entire trial will end. In addition to Sam Altman, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella (who has been a key partner in OpenAI for the past seven years) is also expected to testify.