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Jury Trial in Musk’s Fraud Case Against Altman and OpenAI Set for April 27

The trial will probe whether OpenAI’s profit-focused pivot, including ties to Microsoft, conflicted with commitments Musk says guided his early funding.

Overview

  • U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers scheduled jury selection for April 27 in Oakland with a roughly four-week trial window through about May 22.
  • The judge last week declined to block the case from trial and hundreds of exhibits were unsealed, including a 2023 text exchange between Musk and Altman.
  • Musk alleges he was misled after contributing about $38 million, saying OpenAI abandoned its original nonprofit mission in favor of for-profit structures and a Microsoft partnership.
  • OpenAI counters that Musk knew of the pivot by 2018, says its nonprofit arm retains central governance, and characterizes the suit as baseless.
  • Microsoft is named as a defendant after investing billions since 2019 and becoming OpenAI’s largest shareholder following a restructuring, with a pretrial conference set for March 13.