Elon Musk and OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman faced each other in a packed federal courtroom in Oakland, California, on 27 April, as a $150 billion trial over the future of ChatGPT and the company's charitable roots opened before a hand-picked jury.
The case centres on whether OpenAI, created in 2015 as a non-profit dedicated to developing safe artificial intelligence for the benefit of humanity, quietly shifted into a profit‑driven juggernaut in breach of its founding mission. Musk, once a founding donor and board member, now says the organisation he helped launch has been turned into what he calls an $800 billion commercial enterprise riding on his seed money. OpenAI, backed by Microsoft and led by Altman, insists the transformation was both necessary and openly discussed and that Musk is acting out of rivalry as he builds his own AI start‑up, xAI.
