News

Musk Takes OpenAI Fight to Trial as Nonprofit Mission Comes Under Scrutiny

• By John K. Waters
• 04/28/2026

Elon Musk took the stand on Tuesday in a federal trial over whether OpenAI, the artificial intelligence company he helped create, abandoned its founding nonprofit mission as it grew into one of the world’s most valuable technology firms.

The case, being heard before a nine-person jury in U.S. District Court in Oakland, pits Musk against OpenAI, its Chief Executive, Sam Altman, its President, Greg Brockman, and Microsoft. Musk alleges that OpenAI’s leaders shifted the company away from a pledge to develop artificial intelligence for the benefit of humanity and toward a commercial model that benefited insiders and Microsoft.

“It’s not OK to steal a charity,” Musk said in court, according to the Associated Press. His lawyer, Steven Molo, argued that OpenAI’s original mission was the safe, open development of artificial intelligence, and that the company’s later structure violated that commitment.

OpenAI denies wrongdoing. Its lawyer, William Savitt, told jurors that the case exists because Musk “didn’t get his way with OpenAI,” and argued that Musk had tried to take control of the company, including by proposing a for-profit structure and a possible merger with Tesla.

The trial has already been narrowed. On Friday, U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers dismissed Musk’s fraud and constructive fraud claims at his request, leaving claims of breach of charitable trust and unjust enrichment for trial. Musk said the move would help focus jurors on whether OpenAI should benefit humanity rather than operate as what he called a “wealth machine.”

Musk is seeking damages for OpenAI’s charitable arm, as well as remedies that could affect OpenAI’s structure and leadership. Recent reports have put the damages request at roughly $150 billion, though estimates have varied, and Musk has also sought the removal of Altman and Brockman from leadership roles.

The dispute traces back to 2015, when Musk, Altman, Brockman, and others helped launch OpenAI as a nonprofit research organization. The company’s stated purpose was to ensure that advanced artificial intelligence would benefit humanity. Musk left OpenAI’s board in 2018, before the company created a capped-profit arm—a for-profit part of a nonprofit-led organization that can raise money from investors but limits how much profit those investors can make—in 2019 to raise capital and compete for talent. In practical terms, that means Musk was involved in OpenAI’s early nonprofit period, but he was no longer on the board when the company made its major business-model shift.

Microsoft later became OpenAI’s most important commercial partner. Musk argues that the Microsoft relationship, OpenAI’s reduced openness, and the company’s shift toward a more conventional commercial structure show that OpenAI broke faith with its original purpose. OpenAI says there was no binding promise to remain a nonprofit forever, and that Musk’s lawsuit is meant to damage a competitor after he launched xAI in 2023.

The case arrives as OpenAI is reshaping its business around large-scale partnerships, cloud infrastructure, and possible public-market ambitions. Reuters reported last week that OpenAI is preparing for a potential initial public offering that could value it at $1 trillion.

The trial is expected to last about three weeks. Altman, Musk, and Microsoft Chief Executive Satya Nadella are among the major technology figures expected to testify, making the case both a legal fight over corporate structure and a broader examination of how nonprofit promises survive the capital demands of frontier artificial intelligence.