What's at stake in the Elon Musk-Sam Altman trial - NBC News

SAN FRANCISCO — It’s a trial so unusual, not even artificial intelligence could make it up.

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Jury selection begins Monday in a federal courtroom in Oakland, California, in a civil trial that features one tech billionaire, Elon Musk, suing another, Sam Altman. The case is one part business dispute and one part highly personal grudge match — and it could determine the future of red-hot startup OpenAI and its signature app, ChatGPT.

The trial is scheduled to run for four weeks, with a cast of prominent tech executives set to testify. Witnesses are expected to include not only Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, and Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, but possibly also Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and current and former OpenAI board members, as well as top AI researchers.

“Billionaires versus billionaires,” observed Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, who is presiding over the case, in a hearing last year in Oakland, just across San Francisco Bay from OpenAI’s headquarters.

At the heart of the case is OpenAI’s transformation from a nonprofit research center founded in 2015 into a for-profit behemoth, now with billions of dollars in outside investment. Altman and Musk were the founding co-chairs of OpenAI.

OpenAI completed a restructuring in October, with the for-profit organization still reporting to a nonprofit foundation.

Musk, who now has a rival AI startup, xAI, says the transformation away from nonprofit status was a betrayal. He alleges that Altman and others accepted his money, advice and time under the pretense of creating a public-spirited enterprise only to later allow people to cash in. Musk sued Altman and a long list of other co-defendants in 2024, demanding restitution that he later estimated at $134 billion.

Altman’s side counters that Musk is rewriting history. They argue Musk left OpenAI in a huff in 2018 and never gave the full $1 billion he pledged. They also say Musk agreed with them years ago about the need to convert OpenAI into a for-profit company in order to raise capital — only they say Musk wanted OpenAI for himself and argued for folding it into his automaker, Tesla.

Both sides appear to relish the chance to prove themselves correct.

“Can’t wait to start the trial. The discovery and testimony will blow your mind,” Musk posted in January on X, which he owns.

“Really excited to get Elon under oath in a few months, Christmas in April!” Altman said in February, also on X.

What’s happening at OpenAI?

The two men are similar in a few ways. They’re both tech billionaires with a keen interest in AI who have built massive companies in the Bay Area. They share a love of posting on X and have become household names through their business success and media profiles.

But they also have sharp differences. Musk, 54, is nearly a generation older than Altman, 41. Musk is active in far-right Republican politics, while Altman is a conflicted longtime Democratic donor who last year called himself “ politically homeless ” and gave $1 million to President Donald Trump’s inauguration. Altman is a booster for San Francisco, advising its mayor and expanding OpenAI’s offices here, while Musk shuns the city and now lives in Texas.

Musk is also vastly wealthier, with a $645 billion net worth that makes him the richest person in the world, according to Bloomberg. With SpaceX’s expected IPO later this year, Musk could become the world’s first trillionaire.

The souring of their relationship has at times bordered on the petty and personal. Musk has repeatedly posted on X about “Scam Altman,” while Altman publicly demanded back his $45,000 deposit for a Tesla Roadster, Musk’s long-delayed sports car.

The timing only adds to the trial’s drama: OpenAI is locked in a heated battle with Anthropic and Google for leadership in the AI market, trying to get both consumers and business customers hooked on chatbots and other AI tools, while public anger over AI continues to simmer as evidenced by a recent attack on Altman’s home.