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Musk vs. Ultraman: AI's Biggest Case in History Goes to Trial

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「World's Richest Person」 Takes on 「World's Top AI Factory」, Directly Impacting the Future Paths of Two Trillion-Dollar IPOs.

Original Title: "Musk vs. Ultraman, the Biggest AI Case in History Goes to Trial"
Original Author: Azuma, Odaily Planet Daily

The first major case of the AI era has officially gone to trial.

On April 27, Elon Musk, known as the "world's richest person," filed a lawsuit against the "world's top AI factory" OpenAI in the Northern District of California Federal Court. The jury selection process began on the same day, and the opening statements are expected to take place today. The presiding judge is Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, and the case is expected to be tried for four weeks.

Historical Feud

The feud between Musk and OpenAI has a long history.

In 2015, Musk, along with Ultraman (Sam Altman) and others, co-founded OpenAI. At that time, both shared the same idealistic vision – to create a "non-profit, open-source" AI organization to counter the AI monopoly of giants like Google.

Initially, Musk was even one of the biggest donors to OpenAI and played a significant role on the board of directors.

However, idealism quickly ran into real-world challenges as OpenAI's AI development lagged far behind Google's DeepMind.

Under the dual pressures of funding shortages and a lack of progress in development, Musk grew increasingly dissatisfied with the OpenAI leadership led by Ultraman. He even proposed merging OpenAI into Tesla, with him as the CEO to have a deeper control over OpenAI.

The leadership, including Ultraman, naturally did not agree to Musk's proposal. The ultimate result of the struggle was Musk being ousted from the OpenAI board in 2018, bringing an end to their collaboration.

Then, in March 2019, OpenAI officially announced abandoning the non-profit organization path and became a "limited-profit company." Later that year, they accepted a $1 billion investment from Microsoft, gearing up at full throttle on the commercialization path.

2022 marks another critical juncture. In that year, OpenAI released the world-shocking ChatGPT, officially kicking off the LLM explosion. Whether out of past idealism or simply not tolerating the former ally's remarkable progress, Musk was quite angry about it (described as such by the media at the time).

Following that, Musk, on one hand, publicly criticized OpenAI on social media for deviating from its open-source, non-profit path, claiming it is no longer "OPEN" and is now fully controlled by Microsoft (It is worth mentioning that OpenAI has announced today the termination of Microsoft's exclusivity)… At the same time, he personally intervened to create xAI, hoping to compete directly with OpenAI.

On the other hand, OpenAI believes that Musk is simply sour grapes. OpenAI argues that Musk had expressed interest in supporting a commercialization pivot back when he was still on the board (there is historical email evidence), but only began criticizing after stepping down—what he calls a deviation from the original mission is just an excuse Musk found for losing control.

Legal Battle

Amid growing contradictions, Musk officially filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and its two co-founders, Ultraman and Greg (Greg Brockman) in 2024.

First, in March 2024, Musk filed a lawsuit in California, USA—accusing OpenAI of violating the founding agreement by transitioning the company from "non-profit" to "for-profit," essentially turning it into a "closed-source affiliate" of Microsoft; and demanding OpenAI to return to its non-profit mission by open-sourcing the core model, preventing Microsoft from profiting from it.

However, this lawsuit was quickly withdrawn, seeming to be just a probing move.

In October 2024, Musk once again filed a lawsuit in the Northern California district court, this time directly naming Microsoft as a defendant and further escalating the accusations and demands—accusing OpenAI and Microsoft of fraud and deception (the subsequent part of this accusation has been withdrawn), unjust enrichment, breach of charitable trust, conspiring to convert non-profit assets into commercial interests;

Requesting to stop OpenAI from completely transforming into a for-profit company, have the company return to a non-profit structure, divest or recover illegal profits, pay damages of $134 billion to $150 billion, and remove Ultraman and Greg.

In April 2025, OpenAI countersued Musk for harassment and malicious disruption of operations, claiming Musk deliberately delayed OpenAI's development for personal gain, leading both sides into a phase of mutual litigation.

Then, in September 2025, Musk's xAI filed another lawsuit against OpenAI, accusing it of stealing trade secrets, partly because OpenAI had hired former xAI employees to obtain confidential information. The next day, Musk also posted on X, saying, "We sent them many warning letters, but they continued to cheat. Litigation is the only option after exhausting all other means."

Yesterday, the long-awaited courtroom drama finally took center stage. With the start of the trial phase, more details of the case are expected to be gradually revealed over the next four weeks. Although the possibility of one party filing a further appeal cannot be ruled out, it will undoubtedly shed more light on the case.

Passionate Exchange

As the trial commenced, Musk and the OpenAI camp also engaged in a passionate exchange on social media.

Yesterday evening, Musk posted or reposted dozens of tweets, even resorting to personal attacks, referring to Altman as "Scam Altman" and calling Stockman a "thief."

"Thief Greg gave himself tens of billions in stock options, and Scam Altman also cut himself a slice through a bunch of Y Combinator-esque OpenAI-related transactions (after this lawsuit, he will directly receive tens of billions more in stock options) ... I could have turned OpenAI into a for-profit company from the start, but I didn't.

I founded it, funded it, recruited key talent, and taught them everything I knew about building a successful startup — all for the public good. Then they stole this charity."

On the OpenAI side, although Altman and Stockman have not responded to this, OpenAI responded through official channels, stating: "We are eager to present our case in court because the truth and the law are on our side.

This lawsuit was baseless from the start, motivated by jealousy, and aimed at blocking a competitor. We will also have the opportunity to depose Musk in front of a California jury about his attempt to undermine our work to ensure that AGI benefits all of humanity."

Situation Assessment

Over the next four weeks of trial time, it is expected that heavyweight figures including Musk, Altman, Stockman, Nadella (Microsoft CEO), and others will testify in court.

According to reports from various media outlets, key witnesses like Shivon Zilis, former board member of OpenAI (and also the mother of Musk's four children), as well as evidentiary materials such as Stockman's private diary (containing internal strategic reflections, submitted as evidence), may play crucial roles in shaping the course of the case.

As for Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, she was appointed by former U.S. President Obama and is known for her pragmatic approach, having presided over numerous major disputes between tech companies.

In this case, Judge Rogers has significant discretion to decide whether any remedies are needed and what those remedies should be. She has divided the trial into two phases: the first phase to determine if Automan and OpenAI are liable for misconduct, and the second phase, if necessary, to devise a solution.

As the trial unfolds, prediction markets such as Kalshi and Polymarket have also launched events related to the case. Currently, the two sides are evenly matched (with Musk's odds at 48%), and further updates are awaited.

Looking ahead, this "AI Trial of the Century" will not only resolve the historical grievances between Musk and Automan, but also directly or indirectly impact the subsequent IPO processes of OpenAI and SpaceX, two trillion-dollar companies.

This is the most significant non-technical variable in the current AI competition landscape and could profoundly affect the power dynamics of the future AI world.