Elon Musk and Sam Altman head to trial over OpenAI's shift to for-profit structure

Musk is suing OpenAI and Microsoft for as much as $134 billion in damages, alleging that Altman and OpenAI president Greg Brockman deceived him into funding the company by promising to keep it a nonprofit, then restructured it to operate a for-profit subsidiary. Musk is also asking the court to remove Altman and Brockman from their roles and restore OpenAI as a nonprofit.

Nine jurors will deliver an advisory verdict (a non-binding recommendation) to guide the judge. Musk, Altman, and Brockman will testify, along with former OpenAI chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati, and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. The trial is taking place in Northern California ahead of OpenAI's anticipated IPO.

OpenAI is valued at over $850 billion, while Musk's xAI in combination with SpaceX is valued at $1.25 trillion. If Musk prevails, any of the remedies he seeks could cripple OpenAI as it races to go public by the end of the year, while xAI is expected to go public as early as June.