Jury selection is set to begin Tuesday at the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in Oakland.
Musk vs OpenAI — the lawsuit that has dragged on for more than two years — is finally going to trial.
But on Friday evening (April 25), Musk made a decision that surprised everyone: he withdrew all fraud allegations.
From 26 claims to 2
Musk originally filed 26 claims against OpenAI, Altman, Brockman, and Microsoft. Just 48 hours before trial, he cut them down to two:
- Unjust Enrichment
- Breach of Charitable Trust
The most significant claim dropped was fraud — the core narrative of the original case: "Altman deceived me, turning a nonprofit into a trillion-dollar empire."
Why disarm right before trial? Two interpretations:
- Fraud carries a higher evidentiary burden in civil cases — the plaintiff must prove the defendant knowingly made a false statement, the plaintiff relied on that statement, and suffered damages as a result. Musk's evidence chain may not have been clean enough.
- A tactical narrowing — focusing the case on the two points OpenAI will find hardest to defend: money (unjust enrichment) and trust (misappropriation of charitable assets). Neither requires proving Altman's subjective intent, only the objective outcome.
OpenAI's legal team reacted strongly, accusing Musk of a "legal ambush" — only unveiling this new strategy two weeks before trial. In short: the other side changed its game plan at the last minute, and we've been preparing for the fraud narrative for two years.
Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers granted Musk's request, citing the need to "streamline the case."
What Musk really wants
Moral high ground, memoirs, Twitter rants — those are all performance.
What Musk actually wants from this trial is spelled out clearly in the complaint:
| Demand | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Up to $134 billion in damages | Directed to OpenAI's nonprofit arm |
| Court order to restore nonprofit status | Reverse the entire for-profit restructuring |
| Remove Sam Altman as CEO | Replace the top leader |
| Remove Greg Brockman as President | Replace the second-in-command |
Look closely — this isn't about money. The $134 billion, per the complaint, is "directed to OpenAI's charitable arm," not into Musk's pocket.
Musk's strategy: keep the money in OpenAI's nearly hollowed-out nonprofit shell, then replace everyone currently in power. With whom? Not explicitly stated, but the fact that xAI has people who could "come over to help" is probably no coincidence.
In plain English — this is a hostile takeover of OpenAI's highest decision-making authority, using law as a tool instead of money.
Timeline of key events
Key milestones over the past two years:
- 2015: Musk and Altman co-found OpenAI as a nonprofit research institution
- 2018: Musk leaves OpenAI's board, citing conflicts of interest with Tesla's AI work
- 2019: OpenAI creates for-profit subsidiary "OpenAI LP"; Musk begins public criticism
- Early 2024: Musk files his first lawsuit
- 2025: xAI secures major funding, valuation skyrockets
- February 2026: Musk's team offers $97.4 billion to acquire OpenAI's nonprofit assets; rejected by OpenAI's board
- April 7, 2026: Musk formally demands Altman's removal as a remedy in the lawsuit
- April 25, 2026: Drops fraud claims, focuses on trust and unjust enrichment
- April 28, 2026 (tomorrow): Jury selection begins
After the $97.4 billion offer was rejected, Musk's strategy shifted — if he can't buy it with money, he'll dismantle it with law.
How OpenAI is responding
OpenAI, Altman, Brockman, and Microsoft have a unified response: denied wrongdoing.
OpenAI's core arguments are twofold:
- The nonprofit-to-for-profit conversion was compliant: The 2019 restructuring went through board approval, compliance review, and tax confirmation — all procedures were followed.
- The charitable mission hasn't changed: The for-profit subsidiary's charter still states its goal is "to benefit all of humanity."
But both arguments share a common weakness — they are procedural defenses, not substantive ones. Civil courts typically care less about procedural compliance and more about whether the final outcome is reasonable.
And the final outcome is clear:
- A nonprofit founded in 2015 is now valued at $852 billion
- The largest beneficiaries of that valuation include Altman himself (estimated 2-7% stake, worth roughly $16-56 billion at an $800 billion valuation) and Microsoft ($23 billion investment for 49% of the for-profit subsidiary's profit share)
- The original promises of "open source, transparency, and not serving any single stakeholder" have all been abandoned
The jury will have to answer one question: In transforming from a nonprofit intended to serve all of humanity into a nearly trillion-dollar private company, did OpenAI violate its charitable trust obligations to its original donors and the public?
The real meaning of this trial
Musk vs OpenAI is not about Elon's personal grievances.
It is the first time the U.S. legal system has seriously grappled with a question: When a nonprofit AI research organization restructures into a trillion-dollar commercial entity, where do the original charitable commitments go? The answer will directly determine the operational room for Anthropic, xAI (if it pursues a nonprofit path), Mistral, and others in the coming years.
If Musk loses — OpenAI wins a "restructuring compliance" precedent, and the path for all future nonprofit AI labs to convert to for-profit will be greatly widened.
If Musk wins — the nonprofit-to-for-profit conversion path will be thrown into serious doubt, potentially requiring a new round of approvals and compensation.
The most dramatic possible outcome: The jury partially rules in Musk's favor on unjust enrichment but leaves Altman and Brockman in place. That would require OpenAI to pay a sum to the original nonprofit arm, but management stays — giving Musk a face-saving result without fundamentally disrupting OpenAI's operations.
This will likely take months to resolve. After jury selection, the trial itself typically runs another 3-6 weeks.
But one thing is already clear: Altman is in for a rough week. Fresh off issuing an apology letter for the eight deaths in Tumbler Ridge, he now faces the courtroom and the full record of decisions that turned his own company from nonprofit to for-profit.
The halo around AI company leaders has worn thin by April 2026.
Sources: Musk drops fraud claims against OpenAI, Altman ahead of trial (Fortune); CocoLoop; Stage set for Elon Musk's court battle with OpenAI (BSS News); Elon Musk seeks ouster of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman as part of lawsuit (CNBC); Elon Musk's Legal Battle Against OpenAI: Key Insights (GuruFocus)