Musk v Altman: the how, what and why of the tech titans' courtroom battle

Two of the world's richest and most powerful men are to enter a courtroom to fight over one of humanity's most influential companies after years of bitter attacks.

Elon Musk, the world's richest man, owner of social media platform X and chief executive of electric car company Tesla, among others, is taking on Sam Altman, the head of the world's best-known artificial intelligence (AI) company, OpenAI.

The details of the case justify the hyperbole. Here, we explain what's happening and why.

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The case essentially centres on the mission of OpenAI, the company behind the revolutionary generative AI chatbot ChatGPT.

Back in 2015, Mr Musk and Mr Altman were two of the company's co-founders, who created a non-profit to research AI and advance it in a way "that is most likely to benefit humanity as a whole" while "unconstrained by a need to generate financial return". Despite being a co-founder, Mr Musk quit as the co-chair in 2018.

Mr Musk alleged Mr Altman has strayed far from that founding principle.

'Deceit of Shakespearean proportions'

He claims that Mr Altman and OpenAI's president, Greg Brockman, "assiduously manipulated" Mr Musk into co-founding "their spurious non-profit venture".

The promise of a safer and transparent company was in the telling of Mr Musk's claim, "all hot-air philanthropy - the hook for Altman's long con".

"The perfidy and deceit are of Shakespearean proportions," the August 2024 filing says.

Bitter words have been shared about Mr Altman by Mr Musk, who has adopted the moniker "Scam Altman" to describe his rival.

Not only does Mr Altman deny the claims, but he appeared to relish the opportunity to have Mr Musk in the witness box and under oath: in February, he posted on X, "Really excited to get Elon under oath in a few months, Christmas in April!"

OpenAI says the case "has always been about Elon generating more power and more money for what he wants".

"His lawsuit remains nothing more than a harassment campaign that's driven by ego, jealousy and a desire to slow down a competitor."

What to expect

The case has now come to trial in California, with jury selection to get under way on Monday and the process anticipated to take two to three weeks.

Those expected to testify include not only Mr Musk, Mr Altman and Mr Brockman but Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella as well.

Silicon Valley will be watching closely as internal OpenAI workings and executives' dirty laundry could be aired as part of the discovery process.

After paring down the focus of the legal action from 26 claims, lawyers for Mr Musk are seeking to have two of his fraud-based claims dismissed and to focus only on his allegations of unjust enrichment and breach of charitable trust.

OpenAI have said this move is "gamesmanship" and an "evasive" tactic.

What's at stake

Mr Musk is seeking damages that could imperil the future of OpenAI, as it is reported to be pursuing a public listing on a stock exchange later this year, including the removal of Mr Altman and OpenAI's president Greg Brockman, as well as more than $134bn in damages.

Also being sought is the scrapping of some of OpenAI's deals with its biggest investor, the tech giant Microsoft. OpenAI technology is used in Microsoft products.

A successful challenge of how Mr Altman has run and restructured OpenAI, making it a profitable business, will add challenges to its becoming a publicly listed company with the associated additional transparency.

And if Mr Musk loses, OpenAI could get a boost, meaning the AI company he founded, xAI, faces even tougher competition.

As a subsidiary of SpaceX, xAI doing worse may have an impact on the listing of the aerospace company.

Of course, the future functioning of AI development is at stake, too, as the companies spend vast sums in a race to have the best AI products the fastest.

(c) Sky News 2026: Musk v Altman: the how, what and why of the tech titans' courtroom battle