As trial against OpenAI begins, Elon Musk seeks Sam Altman's ouster

Business As trial against OpenAI begins, Elon Musk seeks Sam Altman's ouster April 28, 20262:42 PM ET John Ruwitch Elon Musk arrives at the U.S. District Court in Oakland, Calif., Tuesday, April 28, 2026. Godofredo A. Vásquez/AP hide caption toggle caption Godofredo A. Vásquez/AP A courtroom brawl between two of the tech industry's most powerful leaders, Tesla CEO Elon Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, is underway in Oakland, California in a case that could transform one of the world's most important artificial intelligence companies. Business Musk vs. Altman: Tech CEOs head to court over the fate of OpenAI "Ladies and gentlemen, we are here today because the defendants in this case stole a charity," Steve Molo, an attorney for Musk, said in his opening statement. In his lawsuit, Musk has argued that Altman steered the company they cofounded a decade ago, ChatGPT creator OpenAI, away from its original mission as a nonprofit meant to develop advanced AI for the benefit of humanity and free of profit motives. The case hinges on a decision early on by OpenAI's founders that they needed to create a for-profit entity to tap capital markets for funding on a scale necessary to build advanced AI. When discussions about who would run the for-profit business broke down in 2018, Musk left. Sponsor Message The following year, OpenAI launched a for-profit division, which has since ballooned in value; at the end of March, the company said it was worth $852 billion. Now, Musk's lawyers are set to argue that Altman and others enriched themselves illegally through that for-profit conversion. "They enriched themselves, they made themselves more powerful, and they breached the very basic principles on which the charity was founded," Molo said in court. According to his suit, Musk is seeking a rollback of that change, and wants Altman, OpenAI President Greg Brockman and financial backer Microsoft to "disgorge" tens of billions of dollars in "ill-gotten gains" that have flowed from it. Mu...