Opening arguments began on April 28 in the public trial of Musk OpenAI in Oakland, Musk’s lead lawyer, Steven Molo, told jurors that without Elon Musk’s $38 million in early funding and the hiring of top AI scientists, OpenAI would not exist, while Musk is seeking up to $134 billion in wrongful benefits to be returned to the company’s arm.
Summary
- Arguments to open Musk OpenAI began on April 28 when lead attorney Steven Molo urged jurors to look beyond their opinions about Musk and focus on the financial and institutional record of OpenAI’s founding.
- Two claims survive the trial: breach of charitable trust and unjust enrichment. The jury’s decision is advisory only, with Judge Gonzalez Rogers making the final decision on both liability and remedies.
- The credit phase continues around May 21, when Gonzalez Rogers directs the jury’s deliberations which will start around May 12 and each side has given exactly 22 hours to present their complete case.
The controversy surrounding Musk’s OpenAI began on April 28 as CNBC reported that Musk, Altman, and Brockman all arrived at the Ronald V. Dellums Federal Building in Oakland in suits, with Molo telling the nine-person jury that “without Elon Musk, there would be no OpenAI, pure and simple.” Molo urged the judges to put aside their previous opinions, saying “not everyone’s opinion is good, not everyone is bad.” As crypto.news reported, nine judges were seated on Monday after five hours of questioning in which many potential jurors expressed their dislike for Musk, with Judge Gonzalez Rogers admitting that “the truth is that people don’t like him” while expressing confidence the chosen judge will respect the judicial process.
Musk’s OpenAI Trial Enters Proof-of-concept Phase at $852 Billion Company Launch
The remaining two claims are for breach of charitable trust and unjust enrichment. Musk filed 26 claims in August 2024, but a series of pre-trial rulings and his strategic decisions dropped the case to the two. Musk doesn’t want to pay himself back: in January he asked that any damages be returned to OpenAI’s philanthropic arm rather than paid out personally, with the $134 billion figure representing what his lawyers described as unfair profits from Microsoft’s for-profit OpenAI business. Musk founded OpenAI in 2015 with Altman and others as a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing AI for human benefit. He left the board in 2018 after a regulatory dispute. In 2023, he filed his first lawsuit. OpenAI was reorganized in October 2025 as a public benefit organization with a non-profit holding a 26% stake and additional guarantees, a framework OpenAI claims to maintain its philanthropic mission. Musk says he buried it. As crypto.news has written, Musk’s xAI company was valued at $250 billion when it was merged with SpaceX in the SpaceX deal in February 2026, and Musk has even required Wall Street banks competing in SpaceX’s $1.75 trillion IPO to buy subscriptions to Grok, his conversational AI, which is proof that the said law by OpenAI is proof of sale.
What Test Structure Means for Score Timeline
Judge Gonzalez Rogers divided the case into a liability phase and a remedy phase. He gave Musk’s team 22 hours and 22 hours for OpenAI and Microsoft combined, as well as five hours for Microsoft’s separate defense, those assignments including all witnesses, opening statements, and closing arguments. The liability phase is expected to continue around May 21, and jury deliberations begin around May 12. If the judge’s decision is in Musk’s favor, the case will move to the resolution phase before Judge Gonzalez Rogers alone, who will decide the appropriate consequences. Among the remedies Musk is seeking are the removal of Altman and Brockman from OpenAI’s leadership, the cancellation of the October 2025 reorganization, and the redirection of profits to OpenAI’s non-profit arm. OpenAI said the case jeopardizes its expected IPO, which Reuters reported could cost the company $1 trillion.
OpenAI Defense and Counter-Narrative
OpenAI’s legal team is expected to argue in its opening statement that Musk knew and in some cases was advocating for a change in profits before leaving the board, that he pushed to fold OpenAI into Tesla before the 2018 departure, and that the lawsuit is a commercially motivated attempt to harm a direct competitor to xAI. As crypto.news tracked, OpenAI is simultaneously facing a criminal investigation by Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier regarding ChatGPT’s alleged role in advising the defendant accused of shooting at Florida State University, adding a second legal case to what is already a very important legal time for the company before its IPO. Wedbush analyst Dan Ives said he expected the case to result in “bruises and bruises” rather than fatal damages, but added his characteristic note: “It’s Elon and never doubt him in these areas.”
Among the witnesses expected to testify in the four-week trial are Musk, Altman, Brockman, former OpenAI chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, former CTO Mira Murati and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.
