From co-founders to a feud: How a decade changed things
Elon Musk and Sam Altman speak onstage in October 2015 at the Vanity Fair New Establishment Summit in San Francisco, California.
Michael Kovac | Getty Images Entertainment | Getty Images
Musk and Altman were close friends when they were among a group of techies who started OpenAI in 2015 as a nonprofit lab, “to advance digital intelligence in the way that is most likely to benefit humanity as a whole, unconstrained by a need to generate financial return.”
Three years later, Musk was out, after a failed effort to acquire OpenAI at his electric vehicle company Tesla. Then, in late 2022, OpenAI launched ChatGPT, and the commercialization race was on. Already backed by Microsoft, OpenAI raised tens of billions of dollars at valuations that have stretched far into the hundreds of billions.
Musk, for his part, founded xAI in 2023 to try and build a competitor to OpenAI, before suing Altman and the lab he helped start the next year.
Since the suit was filed, the two sides have been engaged in a bitter and public war of words, with Musk referring to his ex-friend as “Scam Altman,” and Altman posting in February that he was, “Really excited to get Elon under oath in a few months, Christmas in April!
— Ari Levy
Trial kicked off with jury selection on Monday
Elon Musk waves to the crowd during the 56th annual World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting in Davos, Switzerland, January 22, 2026.
Denis Balibouse | Reuters
Nine jurors were seated for the trial after several hours of questioning on Monday.
Gonzalez Rogers and lawyers for both parties asked prospective jurors about their views on AI, Altman and Musk. Many said they were not familiar with OpenAI or its executives but expressed dislike for Musk, particularly because of his political activities.
Musk spent more than $250 million to help President Donald Trump win the 2024 election. He also served a chaotic stint as the head of the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, which aimed to dramatically slash government waste and spending.
“The reality is people don’t like him,” Gonzalez Rogers said during the proceedings on Monday. She said she is confident that the jurors who were seated will respect the judicial process and the facts of the case.
— Ashley Capoot
