What's at stake in the Elon Musk-Sam Altman trial

Artificial intelligenceWhat's at stake in the Elon Musk-Sam Altman trialThe trial is scheduled to run for four weeks, with a cast of prominent tech executives set to take the stand.Listen to this article with a free account00:0000:00Elon Musk; Sam Altman.Getty ImagesShareAdd NBC News to GoogleApril 26, 2026, 5:00 PM EDTBy David IngramSAN FRANCISCO — It’s a trial so unusual, not even artificial intelligence could make it up.Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.Jury selection begins Monday in a federal courtroom in Oakland, California, in a civil trial that features one tech billionaire, Elon Musk, suing another, Sam Altman. The case is one part business dispute and one part highly personal grudge match — and it could determine the future of red-hot startup OpenAI and its signature app, ChatGPT.The trial is scheduled to run for four weeks, with a cast of prominent tech executives set to testify. Witnesses are expected to include not only Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, and Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, but possibly also Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and current and former OpenAI board members, as well as top AI researchers.“Billionaires versus billionaires,” observed Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, who is presiding over the case, in a hearing last year in Oakland, just across San Francisco Bay from OpenAI’s headquarters.At the heart of the case is OpenAI’s transformation from a nonprofit research center founded in 2015 into a for-profit behemoth, now with billions of dollars in outside investment. Altman and Musk were the founding co-chairs of OpenAI.OpenAI completed a restructuring in October, with the for-profit organization still reporting to a nonprofit foundation. Musk, who now has a rival AI startup, xAI, says the transformation away from nonprofit status was a betrayal. He alleges that Altman and others accepted his money, advice and time under the pretense of creating a public-spirited enterprise...