The NewYorkTimes.con reported that “The trial of the artificial intelligence age, a legal battle between Elon Musk and OpenAI, is set to begin Monday in a courtroom in Oakland, Calif.” The April 27, 2026 article entitled “The OpenAI trial is set to start” (https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/27/business/dealbook/musk-altman-ai-trial.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share) included these comments:
But while much of the attention is on the juicy details about OpenAI’s back story, what matters most is what the outcome might mean for the future of the A.I. industry.
The fight promises lots of dirt. Musk’s lawsuit accuses OpenAI, which the billionaire co-founded with Sam Altman and others in 2015 as a nonprofit A.I. research lab, of betraying its original mission. OpenAI argues that Musk, who left in 2018, had wanted to control the organization (and had also sought to commercialize it).
Legal discovery in the case has already unearthed titillating detailsinvolving a wide cast of characters, including Shivon Zilis, a former OpenAI board member and the mother of several of Musk’s children; Mark Zuckerberg of Meta; Satya Nadella of Microsoft; and Jared Birchall, a longtime Musk lieutenant. Some are scheduled to testify.
Musk is asking for stiff penalties. They include more than $150 billion in damages; the removal of Altman and another OpenAI co-founder, Greg Brockman, from their leadership roles; and a return of OpenAI to a fully nonprofit status.
The A.I. sector has changed a lot since the dispute began. OpenAI isn’t a research lab dependent on Musk’s money anymore: It’s a $730 billion behemoth that has raised hundreds of billions of dollars from an array of tech giants.
Stay tuned