Musk v. Altman week 3: Elon Musk and Sam Altman traded blows over each other’s credibility. Now the jury will pick a side.
SkimNews Take
The trial's focus on a "nonprofit promise" against a backdrop of massive IPOs highlights the tension between AI's foundational open-source ethos and the immense commercial value it now generates.
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- Elon Musk is suing OpenAI, seeking to unwind the 2025 restructuring that turned its for‑profit subsidiary into a public benefit corporation, to remove Sam Altman and Greg Brockman from leadership, and to claim up to $134 billion in damages from OpenAI and Microsoft.
- OpenAI's lawyer Sarah Eddy argued the company never promised to stay a nonprofit, that it remains a nonprofit dedicated to safe AI, and that Musk’s lawsuit is a sabotage attempt to undermine his own AI venture, xAI.
- Steven Molo claimed that Sam Altman and Greg Brockman broke a promise to use Musk’s donation to keep OpenAI a nonprofit, instead creating a for‑profit subsidiary that made them “extraordinarily wealthy.”
- OpenAI’s planned IPO, targeting a valuation near $1 trillion, could be derailed if the judge sides with Musk, while xAI is slated to go public via SpaceX in June with a $1.75 trillion valuation.
Why it matters: If Musk wins, OpenAI’s $1 trillion IPO could be halted, boosting Musk’s xAI valuation and preserving his control over AI development, while shareholders and employees of OpenAI lose a multi‑billion‑dollar upside and the industry loses a potential AI‑safety watchdog.
