The NewYorkTimes.com reported that “Elon Musk’s lawyer argued that Microsoft’s Satya Nadella played a role in getting Mr. Altman his job back at OpenAI when he was briefly fired in 2023.” The May 11, 2026 report entitled “Microsoft’s C.E.O. Intervened When OpenAI Fired Sam Altman, Musk’s Lawyer Claims” (https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/11/technology/satya-nadella-openai-sam-altman.html) included these comments from Reporters By Cade Metz and Mike Isaac:
In February 2018, Sam Altman, the chief executive of OpenAI, sent an email to Satya Nadella, the chief executive of Microsoft. Elon Musk was leaving the young artificial intelligence lab, Mr. Altman wrote, and it was looking for investors.
After helping to create OpenAI as a nonprofit, Mr. Musk tussled with Mr. Altman over the lab’s direction. Now that he was leaving and taking his cash with him, Mr. Altman hoped to raise huge amounts of money. “We are planning to raise a significant amount of capital for a for-profit subsidiary to develop super capable A.I. computers,” Mr. Altman told Mr. Nadella.
A year later, Microsoft invested $1 billion in OpenAI’s new for-profit venture.
That investment has become one of the key points in Mr. Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI. He claims that after OpenAI took the money — and an additional $12 billion from Microsoft over the next few years — it betrayed its founding mission to be a nonprofit dedicated to the creation of A.I. that is safe for the world.
Mr. Musk is asking for $150 billion in damages, Mr. Altman’s removal from OpenAI’s board of directors and an unwinding of the shift that OpenAI made last year to become a for-profit company.
Several months after suing OpenAI in 2024, Mr. Musk amended the suit to include Microsoft. He accused Microsoft of aiding and abetting OpenAI as the lab abandoned its founding contract as a nonprofit.
On Monday, Mr. Nadella took the witness stand to start the third week of a blockbuster trial in a federal court in Oakland, Calif. It was the final day that Mr. Musk’s side presented its case, and OpenAI is expected to follow in the next few days with closely watched testimony from Mr. Altman.
Mr. Nadella said that even though OpenAI had gone on to enormous success after Microsoft’s investment, he did not think that the venture violated the original mission of the nonprofit. Nor did he believe Microsoft played a role in breaking OpenAI’s founding contract as a nonprofit.
Very interesting!
First published at https://www.vogelitlaw.com/blog/trial-update-microsoft-ceo-intervened-when-openai-fired-sam-altman