Elon Musk and Sam Altman face off in OpenAI lawsuit trial
Two of the most powerful people in artificial intelligence are now sitting across from each other in a federal courtroom instead of a boardroom. Elon Musk and Sam Altman, who co-founded OpenAI with a stated mission to develop AI for the benefit of humanity, are locked in a jury trial that could reshape how the world thinks about nonprofit promises in the age of billion-dollar technology. The trial, which began with jury selection on April 27, 2026, in the US District Court for the Northern District of California, centers on Musks allegation that OpenAI abandoned its founding principles. In English: Musk says he gave roughly $44 million to a charity, and that charity turned itself into a profit machine partnered with Microsoft. What Musk is actually claiming Musk filed the lawsuit on February 29, 2024, naming OpenAI, Altman, and others as defendants. His core argument is straightforward: OpenAI was created as a nonprofit with the explicit goal of pursuing artificial general intelligence, or AGI, for the public good. Instead, Musk alleges, the organization pivoted to a profit-seeking model that benefits insiders and corporate partners rather than humanity at large. The approximately $44 million Musk donated to OpenAI forms the financial backbone of his case.