Elon Musk and Sam Altman’s Lawsuit Opens: Day 1 Review of Both Sides’ Statements and Lawyers’ Arguments to Understand the Battle Over OpenAI’s Power

Silicon Valley Century Trial Officially Opens, Elon Musk Testifies in Person Accusing OpenAI of Deviating from Nonprofit Origins, Turning Toward Profit Maximization, and Demanding Up to $138 Billion in Compensation.

Silicon Valley Century Trial Begins, Musk Personally Appears in Court to Defend Original Intentions

This highly watched tech industry century-long lawsuit has officially entered the jury trial phase at the Federal Court in Oakland, California. Tesla CEO Elon Musk personally testified on Tuesday, detailing to the nine-member jury his original motivation for founding OpenAI.

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Musk emphasized during the trial that the core meaning of this lawsuit is “saving humanity,” not personal gain. He recalled a conversation in 2015 with Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, during which he expressed deep concern over Google’s pursuit of artificial intelligence (AI) safety, fearing a destructive ending similar to the movie “Terminator.” To balance this potential threat, Musk claimed he conceived the prototype of OpenAI, even personally naming the company.

Image source: Business Insider Tesla CEO Elon Musk personally testifies in court on Tuesday

According to court documents and Musk’s testimony, he provided approximately $38 million to $44 million in initial seed funding to OpenAI, which was still a nonprofit organization at the time, before 2016. Musk pointed out that he was actively recruiting top talent, including Chief Scientist Ilya Sutskever, and used his influence to secure NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang’s first AI supercomputer, as well as personally contacting Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella to obtain cloud computing resources.

Musk reiterated in his testimony that he was persuaded by Sam Altman and Greg Brockman, believing that OpenAI would remain forever non-profit and openly share its research code with the public.

Musk bluntly states that today’s OpenAI has deviated from its original altruistic mission, transforming into a closed-source, profit-driven entity, which is a complete betrayal of its initial purpose.

From Nonprofit Ideals to Capital Empire, the Core Dispute of the Hundred-Billion Dollar Lawsuit

Musk’s legal team described OpenAI’s transformation as a carefully orchestrated “plundering charity” operation during opening statements. The lawyers accused Altman and Brockman of promising to create a more transparent and safer organization than a profit-driven enterprise, using this as bait to manipulate Musk into investing substantial funds and resources.

The core of the lawsuit revolves around OpenAI’s transition from a nonprofit to a capital giant valued at up to $852 billion. Musk demands the court replace the current leadership team, including CEO Altman and President Brockman. Additionally, according to major media reports, Musk has filed claims for damages ranging from $138 billion to $180 billion, promising that if he wins, the entire amount will be donated back to OpenAI’s nonprofit charitable division.

With the success of ChatGPT, OpenAI’s commercial value has rapidly expanded, and the company is now planning a potentially groundbreaking IPO that could push its valuation beyond $1 trillion. Musk’s side believes that OpenAI’s deep partnership with Microsoft effectively makes the company a closed subsidiary of Microsoft.

Musk explained in court that although he supported establishing a profit-making branch to cover massive computational costs, the premise was that profit should be subordinate to the nonprofit organization and that the majority of value should not be extracted from charitable purposes.

He mentioned that there were discussions about funding from Tesla or establishing a profit entity, with the core principle being “the tail should not wag the dog,” meaning business interests should not dominate the company’s development.

Defense Lawyers Strongly Counter, Reveal Musk’s Power Grab Intentions

Faced with Musk’s serious accusations, OpenAI’s legal counsel William Savitt launched a strong rebuttal during the trial.

The defense argued that Musk’s lawsuit was driven by his failure to gain control of OpenAI. Savitt directly accused Musk of using his $1 billion donation pledge as leverage to bully the founding team members and force them to submit to Musk’s control demands.

Image source: Reuters OpenAI’s legal advisor William Savitt

Evidence uncovered by OpenAI shows that Musk proposed in 2018 to merge OpenAI into his electric vehicle company Tesla, viewing Tesla as OpenAI’s “cash cow,” and demanded to acquire an absolute majority stake and control of the organization. When Altman, Brockman, and Sutskever rejected this proposal, Musk angrily left the board and went on to establish the competitor xAI.

The defense further countered that Musk’s insistence on the so-called “nonprofit mission” was hypocritical. They presented documents showing Musk had already recognized that to compete with giants like Google, OpenAI had to transform into a profit-oriented entity to raise billions of dollars.

Savitt sarcastically stated that Musk has never truly cared about AI safety or the nonprofit structure; what he really cares about is maintaining maximum control. OpenAI emphasized that Musk’s current efforts are essentially aimed at suppressing competitors and attempting to legally seize the technological benefits he once voluntarily relinquished.

This trial is expected to last about three weeks, with testimonies from Microsoft CEO Nadella, Altman, Brockman, and several early core engineers of OpenAI expected to shed light on the power struggle in Silicon Valley.

The Ecosystem Under Judicial Aftershocks, Worldcoin Plummets, and AI Industry’s Uncertain Future

As trial details are gradually revealed, the cryptocurrency project Worldcoin (now renamed World Network), closely associated with Altman, has suffered severe market impacts. Musk repeatedly mocked Altman on social media as “Scam Altman,” sparking widespread skepticism within the crypto community about Worldcoin’s token model, biometric data collection practices, and black market account transactions.

Affected by this legal dispute, $WLD token’s price has fallen over 98% from its all-time high, dropping nearly 3% on the day of the trial’s opening. Blockchain detective ZachXBT also accused the project’s tokenomics, further fueling investor panic. The ripple effects of this lawsuit have spread across the blockchain and AI intersection, with markets closely watching whether Altman’s personal reputation will collapse.

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Outside the courtroom, protests gathered at the Oakland courthouse. Some held anti-AI slogans, criticizing Musk and Altman as billionaires developing technologies that threaten employment and safety.

Image source: Fox Business Protesters holding anti-AI signs criticize Musk and Altman, billionaires developing technologies threatening jobs and safety

Legal analysts note that since both parties hold significant social influence in the AI industry, selecting an unbiased jury will be a major challenge. Current market predictions estimate about a 40% chance of Musk winning; most experts expect the case to ultimately settle or force OpenAI to return more rights to the foundation. Regardless of the verdict, this lawsuit has profoundly revealed how the AI industry, in its pursuit of technological peaks, repeatedly wrestles between idealism, power ambitions, and capital expansion, ultimately determining the control of core human technologies for decades to come.