{"id":796528,"date":"2026-05-14T19:47:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T19:47:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/796528\/"},"modified":"2026-05-14T19:47:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T19:47:14","slug":"openai-trial-live-updates-closing-arguments-begin-in-elon-musk-vs-sam-altman-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/796528\/","title":{"rendered":"OpenAI Trial Live Updates: Closing Arguments Begin in Elon Musk vs. Sam Altman Case"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Cade<\/a>\"Mike<\/a>Updated\u00a0<\/p>\n

May 14, 2026, 2:58 p.m. ET<\/p>\n

An OpenAI lawyer on Thursday defended the company\u2019s chief executive, Sam Altman, from withering character attacks by Elon Musk\u2019s legal team, as both sides delivered their closing arguments in a trial with potentially seismic implications for the artificial intelligence race.<\/p>\n

Earlier, Steven Molo, Mr. Musk\u2019s lead counsel, laid out the billionaire\u2019s case that OpenAI and its leadership breached the start-up\u2019s founding agreement by putting commercial gain over the public good. He told the jury that the case should hinge largely on the credibility of Mr. Altman, as he displayed an unflattering photo of the executive and portrayed him as deeply untrustworthy.<\/p>\n

\u201cImagine that you\u2019re on a hike, and you come upon one of those wooden bridges that you see on a trail, and it\u2019s over a gorge,\u201d Mr. Molo said. \u201cThere\u2019s a river that\u2019s 100 feet below and it looks a little scary, but a woman standing by the entry to the bridge says, \u2018Don\u2019t worry, the bridge is built on Sam Altman\u2019s version of the truth.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

He then asked the jury: \u201cWould you walk across that bridge? I don\u2019t think many people would.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. Musk, Sam Altman and other A.I. researchers founded OpenAI as a nonprofit in 2015, vowing to freely share its technology with the rest of the world. But Mr. Musk left the start-up in 2018 after a power struggle with Mr. Altman \u2014 and before the public launch of ChatGPT in 2022 that catapulted OpenAI to commercial success, with Greg Brockman as its president.<\/p>\n

Sarah Eddy, a member of OpenAI\u2019s legal team, aimed in her closing argument to dull the attacks on Mr. Altman and convey that Mr. Musk\u2019s case was groundless. She said the statute of limitations had expired by the time Mr. Musk brought his suit in August 2024, and that \u201cno one in this case, other than Elon Musk, has testified to any commitments or promises that Sam Altman or Greg Brockman or OpenAI made to Mr. Musk.\u201d<\/p>\n

She told the jury that although Mr. Musk accused Mr. Altman and others of stealing a charity, the OpenAI nonprofit still controls OpenAI\u2019s for-profit arm and now has assets worth tens of billions of dollars. She also repeatedly argued that Mr. Musk wanted to turn OpenAI into a for-profit, and that he wanted \u201cunequivocal control\u201d over this for-profit venture. <\/p>\n

The stakes are high. Mr. Musk, who was not in the courtroom on Thursday after traveling to China with President Trump, is asking for more than $150 billion in damages from OpenAI and Microsoft, OpenAI\u2019s primary partner, and said any damages would be shared with the OpenAI nonprofit. He is also asking the court to remove Mr. Altman from the start-up\u2019s board and to stop a shift the company made last year to operate as a for-profit company<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If Mr. Musk loses, Mr. Altman would likely solidify control of OpenAI, which is now valued at about $730 billion. And the company would be free to pursue a data center expansion plan that could cost hundreds of billions of dollars as it appears headed toward one of the biggest initial public offerings in history.<\/p>\n

(The New York Times has sued OpenAI<\/a> and Microsoft, claiming copyright infringement of news content related to A.I. systems. The two companies have denied the suit\u2019s claims.)<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what else to know:<\/p>\n