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Live updates from Elon Musk and Sam Altman’s court battle over the future of OpenAI
Tech Updated May 5, 2026, 8:26 PM UTC Live updates from Elon Musk and Sam Altman’s court battle over the future of OpenAI by Elizabeth Lopatto and Hayden Field Link Share RSS Gift Sam Altman and Elon Musk are facing off in a high-stakes trial that could alter the future of OpenAI and its most well-known product, ChatGPT . In 2024, Musk filed a lawsuit accusing OpenAI of abandoning its founding mission of developing AI to benefit humanity and shifting focus to boosting profits instead. Elon Musk took the stand on April 28th as the first witness called, portraying his interest in founding OpenAI as an effort to help save humanity across three days of testimony, before his financial manager and Neuralink CEO, Jared Birchall, took the stand. Week two of the trial is underway, with professor Stuart Russell and OpenAI cofounder Greg Brockman taking the stand on Monday, as the proceedings also added a live audio stream on YouTube . On Tuesday, Brockman’s testimony continued, with Shivon Zilis , a former OpenAI board member who shares four children with Musk, up next. It’s possible that audio of her testimony will not be available on the stream, with lawyers citing threats against her and her children. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is scheduled to appear on Monday, with OpenAI cofounder and former chief scientist Ilya Sutskever lined up to testify after that. Musk was a cofounder of OpenAI and claims that Altman and Brockman tricked him into giving the company money, only to turn their backs on their original goal. However, OpenAI says that “This lawsuit has always been a baseless and jealous bid to derail a competitor” in a bid to boost Musk’s own SpaceX / xAI / X companies that have launched Grok as a competitor to ChatGPT. In his lawsuit, Musk is asking for the removal of Altman and Brockman , and for OpenAI to stop operating as a public benefit corporation. Musk has also demanded that OpenAI’s nonprofit receive up to $150 billion in damages he’s asking for if he wins the case. People to Know Plaintiff Elon Musk — plaintiff, OpenAI cofounder and now CEO of rival xAI Steven Molo — lead counsel for plaintiff Jared Birchall — manager of Musk’s family office Shivon Zilis — former OpenAI board member who shares multiple children with Musk Defendant Sam Altman — defendant, CEO of OpenAI William Savitt — lead counsel for defendant Greg Brockman — president of OpenAI as well as a cofounder Ilya Sutskever — former chief scientist at OpenAI and a cofounder Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers — aka YGR, trial judge Here’s all the latest on the trial between Musk and Altman: Highlights Google’s AI architect lived rent-free in Elon Musk’s head OpenAI’s president does ‘all the things,’ except answer a question Elon Musk’s worst enemy in court is Elon Musk Elon Musk appeared more petty than prepared Musk vs. Altman is here, and it’s going to get messy Elon Musk is about to be a very busy boy! ‘Sideshow’ concerns and billionaire dreams: What I learned from Elon Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI Inside Elon Musk’s messy breakup with OpenAI May 5 Elizabeth Lopatto The jurors look as bored as I feel. Wu is still identifying documents. Two jurors have some real thousand-yard stares going on. May 5 Elizabeth Lopatto Brockman steps down. We are looking at the video deposition of Robert Wu. We are now looking at assorted legal documents with him. We have determined the board has approved the agreement of 2018, which is the initial formation of the for-profit OpenAI LP. OpenAI Inc. contributed assets and in result got the limited partner interest and “residual interest.” This seems to be mostly about reading stuff into the record. May 5 Elizabeth Lopatto Brockman is telling the truth about considering removing Musk from the board. Molo asked a very narrow question about texts or emails about removing Musk from the board. Then he accused Brockman of making up the explanation after the fact because of the trial. OpenAI’s lawyer pulled out two sentences from the same entry: “real decision is fire Elon” and “We seem converged on the ‘fire Elon’ route.” Pretty good from OpenAI’s lawyers, and very annoying / misleading from Molo. May 5 Elizabeth Lopatto Every time Molo makes a summary of Brockman’s testimony, Brockman objects to it. For instance, yesterday, Brockman gave a long spiel about the setup of OpenAI that only tangentially involved Musk. Altman and Sutskever were portrayed as being in the middle of things. Molo effectively said that and then pointed out that Musk’s money was key. Brockman objected both to the summary, and to the idea that Musk’s money was key. Come on , dude. We aren’t idiots. May 5 Elizabeth Lopatto We are now fighting about “Either go do something on your own or continue with OpenAI as a non-profit.” It’s not clear to me why Musk’s ultimatum matters? Musk says he won’t continue funding until he gets a firm commitment. Brockman testified he never made that firm commitment, and Musk didn’t resume his quarterly payments. There we
- In 2024, Musk filed a lawsuit accusing OpenAI of abandoning its founding mission of developing AI to benefit humanity and shifting focus to boosting profits instead.
- Week two of the trial is underway, with professor Stuart Russell and OpenAI cofounder Greg Brockman taking the stand on Monday, as the proceedings also added a live audio stream on YouTube .
- On Tuesday, Brockman’s testimony continued, with Shivon Zilis , a former OpenAI board member who shares four children with Musk, up next.
- It’s possible that audio of her testimony will not be available on the stream, with lawyers citing threats against her and her children.
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