Musk accuses Altman of betraying OpenAI’s nonprofit mission in trial

Elon Musk opened his fight with Sam Altman by telling jurors that greed drove OpenAI away from the nonprofit mission that gave the company its moral claim to leadership in artificial intelligence. OpenAI rejected that account, and the clash now puts the company’s founding story, its current control structure, and its public credibility on trial in federal court in Oakland, California.

U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers presided over the case, which moved to opening arguments on Tuesday after jury selection on Monday. A nine-person jury with no alternates will decide a dispute that could affect control of one of the world’s most valuable private companies and, if Musk wins, force major changes in how OpenAI operates.

Musk sued OpenAI, Altman, and OpenAI President Greg Brockman in 2024. The judge later narrowed his complaint, leaving a smaller case than the one Musk first filed. At its center is Musk’s claim that OpenAI abandoned the nonprofit mission it was founded on in 2015. OpenAI says that is false, arguing that its nonprofit foundation still controls the company and that its 2019 for-profit arm was created to scale research and deployment while keeping the mission in charge.

The company’s own founding materials describe OpenAI as a nonprofit created in December 2015 to ensure artificial general intelligence benefits all of humanity. OpenAI says the later corporate structure was designed to preserve that goal, not replace it. Its latest structure, the company says, leaves the nonprofit in control of the for-profit subsidiary.

Musk has argued that he helped originate the idea for OpenAI, recruited key people, provided initial funding, and expected the lab to behave like a charity rather than enrich any individual. OpenAI counters that its nonprofit has raised less than $45 million from Musk and more than $90 million from other donors. The company also says Greg and Sam had initially planned to raise $100 million when they started OpenAI in late 2015.

The case lands at a moment when OpenAI’s influence has exploded. The company is now valued at more than $850 billion, and Microsoft has invested more than $13 billion since 2019. Beyond the personal rupture between Musk and Altman, the trial will test whether a nonprofit promise can still be enforced after a startup becomes a giant commercial AI company. The verdict could shape how future AI labs balance mission, money, and control.