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On April 28, 2026, Elon Musk took the stand in a federal courtroom in the Northern District of California, testifying against Sam Altman in a legal showdown over the future of OpenAI, the artificial intelligence research lab they co-founded. The two men, whose partnership began over a shared belief in the existential risks and transformative potential of AI, now face each other as adversaries, with Musk accusing Altman of betraying OpenAI’s founding ideals. Musk’s testimony, which continued for three days, became a defining moment in a saga that started over a decade earlier in Silicon Valley, where the company’s roots stretch back to 2015.
OpenAI was founded in 2015 in San Francisco, California. Elon Musk, originally from Pretoria, South Africa and born in 1971, and Sam Altman, born in 1985 in Chicago, Illinois, were among its most prominent co-founders. It was established as a nonprofit research lab, with the pledge to develop artificial general intelligence (AGI) safely and to share the benefits broadly—rather than allow such breakthroughs to become the property of a single company or nation. The historical context surrounding OpenAI’s birth was marked by a tech industry grappling with the rapid advances in neural networks and deep learning, and a rising chorus of experts warning about the risks of unchecked, profit-driven AI research.
Elon Musk’s upbringing in apartheid-era South Africa exposed him to stark inequalities and the consequences of unchecked power. He moved to North America as a teenager, first to Canada and then to the United States, where he attended the University of Pennsylvania. Musk’s early ventures included Zip2, which he sold to Compaq, and X.com, which merged to become PayPal. Sam Altman, meanwhile, grew up in suburban St. Louis, Missouri. His parents were both doctors, and he learned to code at the age of eight. Altman later attended Stanford University for computer science, dropping out to start the location-based social networking company Loopt.
Musk’s worldview was shaped by his fascination with science fiction, existential risk, and technological disruption. He became convinced that artificial general intelligence represented both humanity’s greatest hope and its most acute threat. He found a kindred spirit in Sam Altman, who had already made his mark as president of the influential startup accelerator Y Combinator. Altman’s experience mentoring hundreds of entrepreneurs gave him an expansive perspective on the societal impacts of technology—he was deeply influenced by mentors like Paul Graham, who encouraged bold, mission-driven thinking. Both men shared a streak of contrarianism and a willingness to challenge the power structures of Silicon Valley’s tech giants.
OpenAI’s early years were marked by ambitious goals and substantial financial commitments. From 2016 to 2020, Elon Musk personally contributed $44 million to the organization—an amount on par with the annual operating budgets of many mid-sized research labs. The company attracted other major donors, including Peter Thiel and Reid Hoffman, and assembled a team of top AI researchers. Greg Brockman, formerly CTO of Stripe, became OpenAI’s first president. In its first major milestone, OpenAI released the Gym toolkit in 2016, providing open-source environments for reinforcement learning research. In 2018, OpenAI achieved a breakthrough with the OpenAI Five project, an AI system that competed against professional Dota 2 players.
A major turning point came in 2018, when Elon Musk left OpenAI following a power struggle within the leadership. Sources later described disagreements over the lab’s direction and the degree of openness around sensitive AI technologies. Musk’s departure created a vacuum, and Sam Altman assumed greater operational control. By 2019, OpenAI had transitioned from a pure nonprofit to a “capped-profit” model, launching OpenAI LP, which could accept outside investment while maintaining a nonprofit board with ultimate authority. In 2023, Altman began exploring a further restructuring that would allow OpenAI to operate as a traditional for-profit corporation.
The seeds of the current legal conflict were planted in February 2024, when Musk filed a lawsuit in San Francisco Superior Court, accusing Altman and OpenAI of abandoning their founding agreement to put safety and broad benefit above profit. In November 2024, Musk sought a preliminary injunction to block OpenAI’s conversion from nonprofit to for-profit, arguing that it violated the understanding under which he had contributed $44 million and other resources. In February 2025, United States District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers expressed skepticism about Musk’s claims of irreparable harm, stating that his argument was “a stretch.”
By April 2025, the battle had intensified. Twelve former OpenAI employees filed an amicus brief, accusing the company’s leadership—specifically Altman—of abandoning the nonprofit’s founding principles. The brief alleged that Altman required departing employees to sign lifetime non-disparagement agreements and claimed that he had “directly lied to employees about the extent of his knowledge and involvement in OpenAI’s practices.” The motion was filed by Harvard law professor Lawrence Lessig, a longtime advocate for nonprofit integrity. That same month, OpenAI countersued Musk, claiming that his lawsuits were an attempt to slow the company and benefit his own commercial interests.
On May 1, 2025, Judge Rogers narrowed the scope of the lawsuit, dismissing claims of false advertising and breach of fiduciary duty while allowing allegations of fraud and unjust enrichment to proceed. Four days later, OpenAI announced it would abandon plans to restructure as a separate for-profit entity—yet Musk’s attorney, Marc Toberoff, declared the lawsuit would continue. In October 2025, OpenAI formed a new for-profit entity, OpenAI Group PBC, with the original nonprofit retaining a 26 percent stake and Microsoft receiving a 27 percent stake, making Microsoft the largest outside shareholder.
The trial reached its zenith in late April 2026. Jury selection began on April 27; Musk took the stand the following day. He was questioned by OpenAI’s attorney William Savitt and his own lawyer, Steven Molo. The court limited Musk’s ability to discuss existential risk, ruling that the broader dangers of AI were outside the scope of the trial. Musk’s testimony was followed by Jared Birchall, head of Musk’s family office, who addressed restrictions Musk had placed on his OpenAI donations. The court also heard from Shivon Zilis, a longtime Musk advisor, who appeared in case files as someone Altman had consulted about how to handle public communications involving Musk.
One of the most significant setbacks in the case for Musk came in February 2025, when Judge Rogers criticized his claims of irreparable harm as unconvincing. Another blow was delivered in April 2025, when the California attorney general declined to join Musk’s lawsuit, weakening its public interest argument. For Altman, the amicus brief from former employees in April 2025 cast a harsh spotlight on his leadership, with accusations of low integrity and a hostile work environment.
Despite these battles, both men have achieved peak influence in the world of artificial intelligence. Under Altman’s stewardship, OpenAI released generative AI tools that transformed industries, including large language models capable of writing code, generating images, and passing professional exams. Microsoft’s investment, which by October 2025 had secured a 27 percent stake in OpenAI Group PBC, gave the company resources on par with some of the world’s largest tech firms. Altman’s strategic maneuvering made OpenAI a central player in the global AI race.
The legacy of the Musk v. Altman lawsuit is still being written, but it has already influenced how philanthropic and for-profit interests are balanced in cutting-edge tech ventures. On April 7, 2026, Musk amended his lawsuit, asking the court to direct any monetary damages to OpenAI’s nonprofit efforts and to remove Altman from the board. The case has prompted scrutiny of the use of lifetime non-disparagement agreements and the role of major tech companies like Microsoft in AI governance. Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, who presides over the trial, ruled that expert witness Stuart J. Russell could not testify on existential AI risk, focusing the case on contract and fraud claims instead.
As of May 2026, the nonprofit OpenAI board controls 26 percent of the new for-profit entity, while Microsoft controls 27 percent, making these two groups the largest stakeholders. Altman and Brockman, as named defendants, face ongoing testimony and cross-examination, with legal arguments centered on whether the company’s shift to profit orientation violated its duty to its original mission and donors.