Elon Musk's long-running lawsuit against OpenAI heads to a federal courthouse in Oakland on Monday, with jury selection set to begin in a case that pits the world's richest person against the company he co-founded — and that could end with one of the largest disgorgement orders ever sought in American litigation.
A Trial Designed Around Two Surviving Counts
When Musk filed suit in late 2024, the complaint named 26 separate counts. By Friday, only two were left. At Musk's own request, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers dismissed the fraud and constructive fraud allegations, leaving breach of charitable trust and unjust enrichment to go before the jury. Reporting from Implicator and The Next Web frames the move as a deliberate strategic pivot: by stripping out fraud, Musk's team no longer has to prove intent, only that OpenAI's pivot from nonprofit research lab to capped-profit company harmed the charitable mission donors and co-founders were promised.
The judge has divided proceedings into two phases. The liability phase will run weekday sessions through mid-May. A separate remedies phase is scheduled to begin May 18, where damages and any structural orders will be hashed out.
The Brockman Diary as Smoking Gun
According to The Next Web's April 26 trial preview, the most damaging single piece of evidence is not an Altman email but a 2017 diary entry from OpenAI president Greg Brockman, which reads: "I cannot believe that we committed to non-profit if three months later we're doing b-corp then it was a lie." Musk's lawyers are expected to use the entry to argue that OpenAI's leadership privately questioned the integrity of the nonprofit commitment well before the 2019 capped-profit conversion that Musk says betrayed the original charter.
An Advisory Jury — and a Judge Who Decides Alone
The trial structure is unusual. Nine jurors will be seated with no alternates, but their verdict is advisory only. Judge Gonzalez Rogers will decide both liability and remedies herself. The Implicator reports Musk is seeking $65.5 billion to $109.43 billion in disgorgement from OpenAI and $13.3 billion to $25.06 billion from Microsoft — totals that approach $150 billion. Any award would flow to OpenAI's nonprofit arm rather than to Musk personally.
Musk is also asking the court to remove Sam Altman and Brockman from leadership and to unwind OpenAI's for-profit conversion altogether — a remedy Gonzalez Rogers herself has called "extraordinary and rarely granted."
Witnesses and What Happens Next
The witness list pulled into the proceedings reads like a roll call of OpenAI's recent history: Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, former CTO Mira Murati, co-founder Ilya Sutskever, and former board member Shivon Zilis are all expected to testify. Altman, Brockman, and Musk are also on the list. Trial coverage is expected to dominate the AI news cycle for at least three weeks, arriving as OpenAI prepares for an IPO at a reported $1 trillion-plus valuation and as the nonprofit foundation that controls roughly 26% of the company sits on an estimated $130 billion stake.
Whatever Gonzalez Rogers ultimately decides, the trial will set a precedent for how American courts treat AI labs that begin life as charities and grow into the most valuable private companies on earth.
