Elon Musk sues Ultraman, seeking $134 billion in damages

The hottest gossip in Silicon Valley lately is Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, suing OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.

And the claim amounts to a staggering $134 billion!

Claiming to be the most well-funded AI company in history, OpenAI has only confirmed a total funding of $122 billion.

So Musk is essentially trying to take down OpenAI, even personally appearing in court despite his busy schedule.

In 2015, OpenAI was founded jointly by Musk, Altman, and others, positioning itself as a “non-profit AI laboratory aimed at benefiting all of humanity.”

Musk contributed money, people, and fame; he claims to have invested at least $44 million during the early stages.

But in 2019, OpenAI restructured into a “capped-profit” entity, with Microsoft investing $1 billion.

By 2025, OpenAI completed its capital restructuring, officially transforming into a “Type B” company, with Microsoft holding about 27% and the OpenAI Foundation holding 26%.

Musk said: This is betrayal, calling Sam Altman “Scam Altman,” and claiming that today’s OpenAI is no longer the non-profit organization founded to “benefit all humanity,” but has become a “cash cow” under Microsoft.

OpenAI’s rebuttal was equally direct: they threw back a bunch of email evidence from back in the day, directly pointing out that Musk’s departure from OpenAI was not due to the so-called “disillusionment with ideals,” but because of a failed power grab—he wanted to merge OpenAI into Tesla, but everyone disagreed.

Both sides presented their arguments, leading to today’s lawsuit.

Normally, U.S. courts selecting a jury require residents in their jurisdiction who are at least 18 years old and do not know the plaintiff or defendant.

But in the local Oakland federal court in California, they couldn’t find any adult residents who didn’t know Musk.

Therefore, the court had to relax the standard, no longer requiring jurors to be unaware of Musk, only that they could “set aside existing impressions and judge solely based on court evidence.”

After more than five hours, nine jurors were selected from a pool of candidates, including a nurse, an insurance seller, a paint seller, and others.

The judge believed that the core issue of this case was “whether the charitable trust was violated,” and didn’t require deep learning knowledge—only an understanding of whether “promises made should be fulfilled.”

But anyone paying attention to the financial markets knows that Musk’s SpaceX is currently rushing toward an IPO, and OpenAI is also expected to go public by the end of this year.

Both projects have a market value exceeding one trillion dollars, and OpenAI will definitely take a share of SpaceX’s funds.

If Musk wins this lawsuit, the court might force OpenAI to revert to a non-profit structure, and the IPO could be canceled.

And if the court actually orders Musk to pay $134 billion, OpenAI would immediately face a cash flow crisis.