Elon Musk and Sam Altman appeared together in a federal courtroom for the first time on Tuesday, April 28, 2026, as their lawsuit over OpenAI’s transformation from nonprofit to commercially driven company went to trial.
Musk, the first witness called to the stand, testified that he co-founded OpenAI roughly a decade ago out of concern that unchecked AI development could lead to catastrophic outcomes. “It could also kill all of us … the Terminator outcome,” Musk told a nine-person jury advising US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers. He said he wanted AI development to follow a path “like Star Trek, not a James Cameron movie.” His attorney, Steven Molo, told jurors that Musk had lobbied governments — including a 2015 meeting with then-president Barack Obama — before concluding he needed to act independently. A key catalyst, Musk said, was concern about Google’s pace of AI development, with Musk citing a dispute with Google co-founder Larry Page as part of his motivation to create “an open-source nonprofit” as a counterweight.
Musk testified he accepted a for-profit arm within OpenAI as a necessary fundraising mechanism, comparing it to a nonprofit museum running a for-profit store — provided the store didn’t overshadow the mission. He said that balance broke down when Microsoft agreed to invest $10 billion in 2023 and OpenAI began shifting intellectual property and staff to its for-profit entity.
OpenAI’s attorney, William Savitt, pushed back, telling jurors that OpenAI never made a binding commitment to remain a nonprofit or release all its code. Savitt also noted that Musk was aware of plans for large-scale corporate investment as early as 2018 but did not file suit until after he founded a competing AI company, xAI, in 2023.
The trial’s outcome could result in financial damages and governance changes at OpenAI that may affect its plans for an initial public offering. Judge Gonzalez Rogers also warned both Musk and Altman to stop using social media to escalate their dispute outside the courtroom.
Source: Business Latest