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Hey AI Community,

As you read this, closing arguments are happening in a federal courthouse in Oakland, California.

The Musk v. Altman trial — the one that will decide who has the right to control the most powerful AI company on the planet — is wrapping up today. The jury begins deliberations after this. A verdict is expected next week.

I've been watching this trial closely since it started on April 27th. And what came out on the witness stand this week is not what anyone was expecting.

Let me bring you up to speed.

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In 2015, a group of people sat down together with one idea. Build artificial intelligence that benefits all of humanity. Make it a nonprofit. Keep it honest. Keep it safe.

Elon Musk was one of those people. He donated $38 million. He recruited talent. He sat on the board.

Then in 2018 he left.

And in 2024 he filed a lawsuit accusing the people he left behind of stealing the charity he helped build.

Musk's lawyers made the case that OpenAI, Altman and OpenAI president Greg Brockman, with the help of investments from Microsoft, jettisoned OpenAI's founding mission of being a nonprofit focused on creating advanced AI for the benefit of humanity.

He wants $150 billion back. He wants Altman and Brockman removed from their jobs. He wants the for-profit structure dismantled.

That is the case. Now here is what came out when both sides testified.

Musk testified in late April and he did not hold back.

Musk testified that OpenAI's for-profit subsidiary became the "tail wagging the dog" and repeatedly accused Altman and Brockman of trying to "steal a charity."

During his testimony, Musk portrayed Altman as someone who could not be trusted with AI. "If you have someone who is not trustworthy in charge of AI, I think that's a very big danger for the whole world," Musk said.

He was combative on the stand. When OpenAI's lawyer questioned him, both men raised their voices. Musk accused the attorney of lying and asking misleading questions. The pair went back and forth several times.

Then the judge told him to remain available to be recalled to testify at short notice.

Musk flew to China with President Donald Trump anyway.

The man suing for $150 billion, in a trial that could determine the future of the most valuable AI company in the world, left the country mid-trial.

Sam Altman took the stand Tuesday and testified for about four hours. His central argument was simple and he said it directly.

He didn't steal a charity. Elon Musk abandoned one.

He told the jury OpenAI was "left for dead" by Musk in 2018, before raising tens of billions to become the company it is today.

Then came the moment that changed everything.

Altman testified that what Musk really cared about was control. "An early number that Mr Musk threw out was that he should have 90 percent of the equity to start," Altman told the jury. "It then softened, but it always was a majority."

Ninety percent. Of a nonprofit supposedly built to benefit all of humanity. The man who says he's suing to protect that mission wanted nine-tenths of it for himself.

Altman also testified that Musk wanted that control to pass to his children after his death.

And then there was the Tesla moment.

Altman testified that Musk once offered him a Tesla board seat in exchange for merging OpenAI into Tesla, which he turned down because, in his view, a car company couldn't carry OpenAI's mission.

"Tesla is a car company," Altman said from the witness stand. "It does not have the mission of OpenAI."

In a tense cross-examination, Musk's lawyer asked Altman about a text he sent Musk in February 2023, in which Altman wrote "I'm tremendously thankful for everything you've done to help. I don't think that OpenAI would have happened without you." When asked if he had changed his view, Altman replied: "I have changed my view on Elon significantly."

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella also testified. Discovery showed that Nadella was worried about OpenAI supplanting his company in the tech hierarchy as far back as April 2022. "I don't want to be IBM and OpenAI to be Microsoft," Nadella wrote in an email to executives.

By June 2026, Microsoft will have spent over $100 billion on OpenAI, inclusive of investment commitments, infrastructure and hosting costs.

One hundred billion dollars. And Microsoft was still afraid of being left behind. That tells you more about the stakes here than anything the lawyers have said.

The nine-person jury is advisory — meaning the verdict guides but does not bind Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, who has the final call.

The lawsuit's headline ask — $134 billion redistributed to the OpenAI nonprofit plus the dissolution of the for-profit entity — is a maximalist remedy unlikely to land in full.

But here is the thing that matters most to everyone reading this newsletter.

OpenAI's for-profit subsidiary is now worth more than $850 billion. The trial won't change that number tomorrow. It will set how much control its earliest backer can still claim over what used to be a research charity.

OpenAI is also preparing for a potential IPO that could value it at one trillion dollars. A jury finding for Musk on even narrower claims would tighten the disclosures OpenAI must put in any prospectus, potentially delaying the offering past the end of 2026.

And if Musk wins even partially — the precedent it sets for every AI company that started with a mission and needed money to keep going is enormous.

OpenAI's co-founder Ilya Sutskever testified earlier in the trial and summed up the entire thing in nine words.

"The mission of OpenAI is larger than the structure."

Musk's side summarised theirs in six.

"It's not okay to steal a charity."

One jury. Nine people. One verdict coming next week.

I'll have the full breakdown the moment it drops.

Reply and tell me who you think wins this. Musk or Altman. I'm genuinely curious where this community lands.

— Prompt Guy

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