GoKawiilThe stakes are high—even a partial win for Musk could set OpenAI back as it reportedly plans to go public this year. But most of the attention comes from the spectacle of a feud on X now playing out in federal court. “Cringey texts, raw diary entries, and endless scheming behind the founding and growth of OpenAI are expected to come to light,” my colleague Michelle Kim wrote before it began. And the trial unfolds as the cultural backlash against AI swells; some of the signs held by protesters outside the courthouse suggest that to a significant number of people, whatever the outcome of Musk v. Altman, we all lose.
Most of us have had to observe the trial from afar, but Michelle, who also happens to be a lawyer, has been in court each day. I caught up with her to learn what’s unfolded thus far and what might come next.
Can you give us the overview of what this case is actually about? What exactly is being decided, and who is favored right now?
Elon Musk is arguing that Sam Altman and OpenAI president Greg Brockman have breached the company’s charitable trust by effectively converting OpenAI into a for-profit company. Musk alleges that is not what they promised him in the company’s early days. He has asked for several remedies, like a crazy amount of damages and removing Sam Altman. But the main remedy he wants is unwinding OpenAI’s restructuring. [In October 2025 OpenAI struck deals with the attorneys general of California and Delaware that would essentially allow its nonprofit portion to have less day-to-day control of OpenAI. It’s a compromise from what OpenAI originally proposed, but Musk still wants to stop it.]
OpenAI argues that Elon Musk actually agreed to have the company operate a for-profit arm, because he knew building AI is very expensive. So it’s about proving what Musk knew, what he didn’t know, and whether he really was deceived by Altman and Brockman.
There’s a big debate about when exactly Musk found out about this alleged misconduct. Musk founded OpenAI with Altman and Brockman in 2015, and he brought the suit in 2024. There’s a statute of limitations for charitable trust claims; you need to have brought a claim within three to four years after you find out about the alleged misconduct. So Musk tries to paint a picture that back in the day he was a little suspicious, but that it was really only in 2022 that he realized OpenAI was no longer committed to its original charitable mission, and that he had been scammed. It’s only the first week of trial, but I’m not sure Musk has proved this to the judge and jury.