Jury selection kicks off in Musk v. Altman trial
A composite image shows OpenAI CEO Sam Altman during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) CEO Summit on November 16, 2023 in San Francisco, California, USA, and Elon Musk, Chief Executive Officer of SpaceX and Tesla and owner of X, formerly known as Twitter, during the Viva Technology conference dedicated to innovation and startups at the Porte de Versailles exhibition center on June 16, 2023 in Paris, France.
Carlos Barria | Gonzalo Fuentes | Reuters
Jury selection begins in a high-stakes legal battle between longtime friends and rivals Elon Musk and Sam Altman at a federal courthouse in Oakland, California.
Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers will oversee transactions between the world’s richest person and the OpenAI CEO starting Monday. There will be nine jurors and there will be no alternates. March application. CNBC is in the courtroom for the hearing.
MuskCo-founder of OpenAI in 2015 lawsuit filed The company, Altman, and OpenAI’s president, Greg Brockman, claimed in 2024 that they had reneged on their commitment to keep the AI lab a nonprofit and pursue its philanthropic mission. OpenAI has repeatedly dismissed Musk’s lawsuit as “baseless.” Musk left the OpenAI board in 2018 and founded xAI as a rival five years later, merging that company with SpaceX earlier this year.
Musk sought a number of different remedies throughout the case, including the removal of Altman and Brockman from their positions at OpenAI. Musk’s lawyers say he should receive it in January up to $134 billion He made “false profits” but has since asked to transfer those funds back to the OpenAI charity.
Gonzalez Rogers preferred Divide the essay into two parts: A liability phase to decide whether there was any wrongdoing and a compensation phase to determine appropriate damages and next steps. The jury will weigh in only during the liability phase, and its verdict will be advisory, meaning Gonzalez Rogers will make the final decision on both parts of the case.
The liability phase of the case is expected to last until mid-May. If OpenAI is found to be at fault, Gonzalez Rogers will hear arguments regarding the resolution phase. planned It will start on May 18.
In Musk’s lawsuit, OpenAI alleges that it was “meticulously manipulated” and “deceived” by Altman and Brockman and their promises to “pave a safer, clearer path from the profit-driven tech giants.” He asked the judge to consider unwinding the company’s recent restructuring, which strengthened its structure as a nonprofit with a controlling stake in its for-profit businesses.
Just two of the 26 claims Musk made in 2024 stay behind: unjust enrichment and breach of charitable trust. Musk’s lawyers He denied both allegationspre-trial fraud and constructive fraud in order to “facilitate the case,” according to a filing.
The trial comes as Musk prepares to take SpaceX public in a possibly record IPO and as OpenAI gears up for its own anticipated IPO later this year. The two companies combined are worth over $2 trillion in the private market.
— CNBC’s Lora Kolodny contributed to this report.
WRISTWATCH: Elon Musk and Sam Altman will appear in court next week – here’s what to expect from the hearing
