Elon Musk and OpenAI completed closing arguments Thursday in their high-stakes federal trial, leaving a nine-person jury to decide the fate of the world’s most prominent artificial intelligence company. The three-week legal battle has revealed the bitter rift between Musk and his former partners, CEO Sam Altman and President Greg Brockman, over whether the company betrayed its founding mission.
Musk’s lawyers argued that OpenAI was created as a nonprofit to build “safe” AI for the benefit of humanity, not to maximize shareholder value. Lead attorney Steven Molo called the pivot to a for-profit model a “Shakespearean” betrayal, accusing Altman of being a duplicitous figure who “bilked” Musk for his initial $38 million investment to create a $850 billion “wealth machine.”
OpenAI lawyer Sarah Eddy reacted by calling it a jealous Musk trying to squash a competitor after his own attempt to take over the company failed in 2018. Notably, the defense pointed out that OpenAI did not have a written agreement to be a nonprofit company forever and knew of the pivot years ago.
First, the jury has to decide whether Musk filed the lawsuit within the statute of limitations. If they reach the merits, their ruling could force Open AI to convert itself into a nonprofit, which could derail its planned $1 trillion IPO and sever its ties with major investors like Microsoft. A verdict could come as early as next week.
