Closing arguments are done.
The nine-person jury in Oakland, California is deliberating right now. Nothing normal about this. Thanks to Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers. She decides what happens next to OpenAI. The trial of the century? Maybe. Or maybe just a very loud noise.
Musk sued his co-founders in 2023. He said they scammed him. Everyone saw it coming. A catfight. Silicon Valley style. The claws came out hard.
Musk admitted on the stand he has a kid with OpenAI executive Shivon Zilie. Your eyes and ears in the room, apparently. Altman suggested Musk cared more about internet jokes than the company they built.
Ghosting the courtroom
Just when the drama peaked, Musk left town.
He promised the judge he would stay. He didn’t. Off to China. With a US delegation. Did he get sanctioned? Judge Rogers runs a tight ship. She tolerates zero nonsense. Nobody has confirmed if paperwork was filed to excuse his absence yet.
OpenAI’s lawyers pounced. “Mr. Musk isn’t here today,” counsel William Savitt told the jury. “My clients are here because they actually care.”
Musk’s lawyer, Steven Molo, apologized. Claimed Musk was passionate. Then Molo launched into a metaphor. Altman and Greg Brockman were like guys standing by a rotten bridge, telling hikers it’s safe. The bridge was “built on Sam Altman’s version of the truth.”
Convenient for OpenAI, right? Because in Molo’s own logic, Musk never showed up at the bridge. He just wanted to buy the lumber in 2017 and sell it to Tesla.
OpenAI called it what it looked like: Musk never liked the nonprofit status. He just wanted to win.
“What he cared about was winning.”
Molo called their actions “stealing a charity.” They called his reaction “sour grapes.”
Who holds the cards
The jury decides facts. But only advice. The real power sits with Judge Rogers. She can ignore the jury entirely. She decides if Musk gets money. If so, how much.
They have to hold more hearings. Discuss remedies. Decide if the charitable trust was broken. There is one giant catch, though.
The statute of limitations. Three years. If Musk knew they breached terms before August 2021? He loses standing. Period.
Musk wants $150 billion. Good luck getting that. Rogers isn’t obligated to give him a penny. Both sides can appeal later, too. This isn’t over. Not by a long shot.
The Microsoft trap
Here is the part nobody is talking about enough.
Musk is suing Microsoft, too. Their $10 billion investment? Molo says that was the moment OpenAI sold its soul. The moment the charity died. He calls it different from older deals. A different horse, maybe. Or a different color.
Microsoft’s defense? We know nothing. Leave us alone. Our due diligence found no red flags.
Ironically, Microsoft might sink Musk.
In 2020, Musk tweeted: “OpenAI is essentially captured by Microsoft.”
He said it publicly. Three years before the lawsuit.
A nonprofit being captured by a for-profit? That sounds like a breach of trust, doesn’t it?
If he knew then, why sue now? Thanks to that clock ticking away, that 2020 tweet might cost him everything.
Or nothing. Maybe he forgets his own tweets. Probably the most likely outcome of all.
