Original | Odaily Planet Daily (@OdailyChina)

Author｜Azuma (@azuma_eth)

The first major case of the AI era has officially begun.

On April 27, the case of “world’s richest person” Elon Musk suing “the world’s leading AI company” OpenAI has officially entered the trial stage in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, with jury selection commencing the same day and opening statements expected to begin today, presided over by Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers. The trial is expected to last four weeks.

Recap of Rivalry

The rivalry between Musk and OpenAI has a long history.

In 2015, Musk co-founded OpenAI with Sam Altman and others, both holding the same idealism at the time —to create a “non-profit, open-source” AI organization to counteract the AI monopoly of giants like Google. In its early days, Musk was even one of OpenAI's largest donors and played a significant role on the board.

However, idealism quickly faced real-world challenges as OpenAI’s AI development lagged behind Google’s DeepMind for a long time. Under the dual pressure of funding shortages and lack of development, Musk grew increasingly dissatisfied with the leadership of OpenAI led by Altman, even suggesting that OpenAI be merged with Tesla, with himself taking over as CEO to gain deeper control over OpenAI.

Altman and the leadership naturally would not agree. The final outcome of the struggle was that Musk was kicked off the board in 2018, and their collaboration came to an end.

Then in March 2019, OpenAI officially announced its abandonment of a non-profit route and transitioned to a “limited-profit company,” also accepting a $1 billion investment from Microsoft that year, beginning to accelerate its commercialization efforts.

2022 marked another critical point. OpenAI released the world-shocking ChatGPT that year, officially igniting the explosion of LLMs. Perhaps out of past idealism or simply out of displeasure seeing his former partners prosper, Musk became quite angry (the term used by the media at the time).

After that, Musk launched a series of attacks on social media against OpenAI for deviating from its original open-source and non-profit path, claiming it was no longer “OPEN” and completely controlled by Microsoft (it is worth mentioning that today OpenAI has announced the termination of Microsoft's exclusivity)…… while personally launching xAI to compete directly with OpenAI.

On the other hand, OpenAI believes Musk is simply “sour grapes,” claiming that when Musk was still on the board, he had expressed intentions to support the commercialization transition (there is historical email evidence), but only began criticizing after his exit — the so-called deviation from the original intention was merely an excuse for Musk due to losing control.

In Court

Under accumulating contradictions, Musk officially filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and its two co-founders Altman and Greg Brockman in 2024.

First, in March 2024, Musk filed a lawsuit in California, accusing OpenAI of breaching the founding agreement by transforming the company from a “non-profit” to a “for-profit organization,” essentially becoming Microsoft’s “closed-source affiliate”; and calling for OpenAI to be forced back to its non-profit mission and open-source core model, preventing Microsoft from profiting from it.

However, this lawsuit was quickly withdrawn, appearing to be a mere exploratory move.

In October 2024, Musk once again filed a lawsuit in the Northern District Court of California, this time directly listing Microsoft as a defendant and escalating the accusations and demands —accusing OpenAI and Microsoft of fraud and deception (which part was retracted later), unjust enrichment, violating charitable trust, and colluding to convert non-profit assets into commercial benefits; demanding to prevent OpenAI from fully transitioning to a for-profit company, returning to a non-profit structure, stripping or recovering illegal profits, compensating $134 billion to $150 billion, and removing Altman and Greg.

In April 2025, OpenAI countersued Musk for harassment and malicious interference with operations, claiming that Musk was deliberately delaying the development of OpenAI for personal gain, leading both sides to enter a counter-litigation phase.

Subsequently, in September 2025, Musk’s xAI sued OpenAI again, accusing it of stealing trade secrets, partly because OpenAI hired former employees of xAI to obtain confidential information. The next day, Musk also posted on X stating, “We sent them many warning letters, but they continued to cheat. After exhausting all other options, litigation was the only choice.”

Yesterday, this prolonged drama finally took the formal stage in court. With the trial phase now underway, it is expected that more details of the case will be gradually disclosed in the next four weeks. While there is a possibility that either party may appeal later, it will certainly provide clearer insights into the case.

Passionate Exchanges

With the trial starting, Musk and OpenAI have also passionately exchanged words on social media.

Last night, Musk posted or retweeted dozens of posts in rapid succession, even resorting to personal attacks, calling Altman a “scammer” (Scam Altman) and Greg a “thief” (Greg Stockman).

“Thief Greg gave himself billions of dollars in equity, scammer Altman also took a share through a bunch of OpenAI transactions similar to the Y Combinator model (after this lawsuit, he would directly get hundreds of billions of dollars in equity)…… I could have made OpenAI a for-profit company from the beginning, but I didn’t. I founded it, funded it, recruited key talents, and taught them everything I knew about building a successful startup — all for the public good. Then, they stole this charity from me.”

As for OpenAI, although Altman and Greg have not spoken out, OpenAI responded through official channels, stating, “We can’t wait to present our case in court, as both the truth and the law are on our side. This lawsuit has been baseless and initiated out of jealousy from the start, aiming to obstruct a competitor. We will eventually have the opportunity to compel Musk to testify under oath about his attempts to sabotage our work to ensure that general AI benefits all of humanity.”

Forecasting the Situation

In the coming four weeks of trial, it is expected that several heavyweight figures, including Musk, Altman, Greg, and Nadella (Microsoft CEO), will testify in court.

According to various media reports, former OpenAI board member Shivon Zilis (also the mother of Musk's four children) and other witnesses, as well as Greg's private diary and other material evidence (recording internal strategic thoughts, already presented as evidence), may play key roles in influencing the case's direction.

As for Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, she was appointed by former President Obama and is known for her pragmatic style, having handled several major disputes between technology companies. In this case, Judge Rogers has considerable discretion to decide whether any remedial measures are necessary and what those measures should be. She will divide the trial into two phases: the first phase to determine whether Altman and OpenAI are liable for wrongdoing; the second phase, if necessary, to determine remedies.

With the trial now underway, prediction markets such as Kalshi and Polymarket have also listed relevant events, and both sides currently remain in an even balance (Musk's winning odds currently report at 48%), still waiting for further updates.

Looking further ahead, this “first major AI case” will not only resolve the historical grievances between Musk and Altman but will also directly or indirectly affect the subsequent IPO processes of OpenAI and SpaceX, both valued at trillions.

This is the biggest non-technical variable in the current AI competition landscape, which may profoundly impact the power dynamics in the future AI world.

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