Elon Musk and Sam Altman face off in court over OpenAI's conversion to for-profit structure

Musk is suing OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman, alleging he invested millions around a decade ago believing OpenAI would remain a nonprofit, but the company has converted into a for-profit corporation. Musk is seeking remedies including damages, removal of Altman, and unwinding OpenAI's restructuring—particularly deals struck in October 2025 between OpenAI and the attorneys general of California and Delaware that would reduce the nonprofit portion's day-to-day control.

The core dispute centers on what Musk knew and when. OpenAI argues Musk agreed to a for-profit arm because he understood AI development is expensive. Musk claims he did not realize OpenAI had abandoned its original charitable mission until 2022, putting his claim within the statute of limitations for charitable trust claims (three to four years after discovering the alleged misconduct).

During testimony on the fourth day of trial, Musk admitted under cross-examination that xAI distills OpenAI's models to train its own models, then stated this is standard practice among all labs. The trial also revealed text messages between Musk and Mark Zuckerberg of Meta attempting to coordinate opposition to OpenAI's restructuring and make a bid for the nonprofit's assets.

The trial is expected to last around three weeks. Greg Brockman (OpenAI president), Stuart Russell (computer scientist at UC Berkeley), Ilya Sutskever (former OpenAI chief scientist), Mira Murati (former CTO), and Satya Nadella (Microsoft CEO) are expected to testify. Nine jurors will deliver an advisory verdict; the judge may decide however she chooses and will determine remedies if she finds OpenAI liable.