Jonathan Frederic De Santos

US President Donald Trump (L) and Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk watch a fight during UFC 309 at Madison Square Garden in New York, on November 16, 2024. Kena Betancur, AFP/File

Article (news)

Agence France-Presse

<p>SAN FRANCISCO — Jury selection is to begin Monday in a high-profile legal battle between billionaire Elon Musk and artificial intelligence startup OpenAI, which he accuses of betraying its non-profit mission.</p><p>The clash in a courtroom across the bay from San Francisco pits the world&#x27;s richest man against a startup that Musk once backed and now competes against in the booming AI sector.</p><p>OpenAI&#x27;s ChatGPT is a formidable rival to the Grok chatbot made by Musk&#x27;s xAI lab.</p><p>While the lawsuit filed by Musk is part of a feud between him and OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman, it spotlights a debate whether AI should ultimately benefit the privileged few or society as a whole.</p><p>Court filings lay out how Altman tried to convince Musk to back OpenAI in 2015, acting as a co-founder for a non-profit lab whose technology &quot;would belong to the world.&quot;</p><p>Musk pumped some $38 million into the lab before he left.</p><p>OpenAI is now valued at $852 billion, with Microsoft among its backers, and is preparing to go public on the stock market.</p><p>The judge presiding over the trial is aiming for a jury to decide by late May whether OpenAI broke a promise to Musk in its drive to be a leader in AI or just smartly rode the technology to glory.</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/technology/2026/3/27/openai-shelves-plans-for-erotic-chatbot-0835">OpenAI shelves plans for erotic chatbot</a></div><div><br/></div><div><strong>Musk duped?<br/></strong></div><p>Musk argues in his lawsuit that he was deceived about OpenAI&#x27;s mission being altruistic.</p><p>The tycoon cites an email from Altman in 2017 claiming that he remained &quot;enthusiastic about the non-profit structure&quot; of their AI venture after Musk threatened to cut off funding for the lab.</p><p>Just a few months later, however, OpenAI established a commercial subsidiary in the face of needing to invest hundreds of billions of dollars in data centers to power its technology.</p><p>Over the course of the following two years, Microsoft pumped billions of dollars into OpenAI and the tech stalwart&#x27;s stake in the startup is now valued about $135 billion.</p><p>Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella is among those slated to testify at the trial.</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/technology/2026/3/21/us-jury-finds-elon-musk-misled-twitter-shareholders-0747">US jury finds Elon Musk misled Twitter shareholders</a></div><div><br/></div><div><strong>Aimed at Altman</strong></div><p>Along with calling for OpenAI to be forced to revert to a pure nonprofit, Musk&#x27;s suit urges the ousting of Altman and OpenAI co-founder and president Greg Brockman.</p><p>Musk is also seeking as much as $134 billion in damages and to have the court make OpenAI sever ties with Microsoft.</p><p>During pre-trial hearings, US Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers mused that Musk team seemed to be &quot;pulling numbers out of the air&quot; when it came to calculating damages.</p><p>If the jury sides with Musk, it will be left to Rogers to determine any remedies or payment.</p><p>In what OpenAI has dismissed as a public relations stunt, Musk has vowed that any damages awarded in the suit will go to the startup&#x27;s nonprofit foundation.</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/technology/2026/4/24/meta-plans-10-layoffs-as-ai-spending-soars-source-0739">Meta plans 10% layoffs as AI spending soars: source</a></div><div><br/></div><div><strong>Quest for control? <br/></strong></div><p>OpenAI internal communications brought to light by the lawsuit reveal tensions that culminated with the temporary ouster of Altman as AI chief executive in late 2023.</p><p>Musk&#x27;s legal team highlighted a 2017 entry in Brockman&#x27;s personal journal reasoning that it would be lying if Altman publicly asserted OpenAI would stay a nonprofit but became a corporation a short time later.</p><p>OpenAI now has a hybrid governance structure giving its nonprofit foundation control over a for-profit arm.</p><p>In court filings, OpenAI countered that its break-up with Musk was due to his quest for absolute control rather than its nonprofit status.</p><p>&quot;This case has always been about Elon generating more power and more money for what he wants,&quot; OpenAI said in a post on X, a platform Musk owns.</p><p>&quot;His lawsuit remains nothing more than a harassment campaign that&#x27;s driven by ego, jealousy and a desire to slow down a competitor.&quot;</p><p>The startup noted that days after Musk entered the AI race in 2023 he called for a six-month moratorium on development of advanced AI.</p>

<p>Jury selection is to begin Monday in a high-profile legal battle between billionaire Elon Musk and artificial intelligence startup OpenAI, which he accuses of betraying its non-profit mission.</p>

Jury selection is to begin Monday in a high-profile legal battle between billionaire Elon Musk and artificial intelligence startup OpenAI, which he accuses of betraying its non-profit mission.

Billionaire Elon Musk enters courtroom showdown with OpenAI

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Billionaire Elon Musk enters courtroom showdown with OpenAI

Agence France-Presse

Published April 25, 2026 12:03 PM PHT

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OpenAI

Elon Musk

Sam Altman

AI

Artificial Intelligence

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