Overview
- Jury selection began Monday in federal court in Oakland for Elon Musk’s civil case alleging OpenAI’s leaders turned a promised nonprofit lab into a profit‑seeking company.
- Ahead of trial, Musk dropped fraud counts, leaving breach of charitable trust and unjust enrichment as the core claims.
- Musk seeks disgorgement estimated between about $134 billion and $150 billion directed to OpenAI’s nonprofit, plus the removal of Sam Altman and Greg Brockman and a rollback of the for‑profit structure.
- Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers is using an advisory jury and has set strict courtroom rules, with any remedies to be decided by the court rather than the jurors.
- Witnesses expected include Musk, Altman, and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, and the case arrives after OpenAI’s 2019 for‑profit shift and a 2025 public benefit corporation deal approved with conditions by California and Delaware attorneys general.