Overview
- Court filings from OpenAI and Microsoft seek to bar economist C. Paul Wazzan’s testimony, arguing his methodology was invented to fit Musk’s claims and discounts others’ contributions to OpenAI’s value.
- The companies say Wazzan relies on a never-consummated 2017 proposal giving Musk a 51.2% stake and on media-reported valuations of xAI without underlying data, with Microsoft also warning of double counting by assuming its profits revert to OpenAI’s nonprofit arm.
- Musk’s complaint seeks $79 billion to $134 billion based on OpenAI’s roughly $500 billion valuation and cites alleged unjust gains of $65.5 billion to $109.43 billion for OpenAI and $13.3 billion to $25.06 billion for Microsoft, with potential punitive damages indicated.
- A federal judge previously rejected efforts to avoid a jury, and the case is scheduled for a late April 2026 trial in Oakland, California.
- OpenAI calls the lawsuit baseless and characterizes it as harassment, while Musk alleges the organization abandoned its founding nonprofit mission in favor of a commercial model tied to Microsoft.