Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, is expected to take the stand the week of May 11 in a high-stakes lawsuit brought by Elon Musk that could fundamentally alter the structure of the world's most valuable AI company. The trial, now in its second week in Oakland, California, centers on Musk's claim that OpenAI violated its original nonprofit mission by transforming into a for-profit enterprise. The outcome could jeopardize OpenAI's planned initial public offering (IPO) and reshape competition in the artificial intelligence industry.

What Is Elon Musk Trying to Accomplish in This Lawsuit?

Musk, the world's richest person and founder of SpaceX and Tesla, is seeking to force OpenAI to revert to its original nonprofit foundation structure. Over three days of testimony last week, Musk portrayed himself as a selfless early supporter of the company, claiming he contributed $38 million between 2016 and 2020 before being sidelined from leadership decisions.

Musk's legal argument centers on a specific grievance: he says he wanted to counterbalance Google's dominance in AI and ensure that transformative AI technology, which he has warned poses risks to humanity, would remain free from profit-driven pressures. However, OpenAI's legal team has pushed back by questioning Musk's own financial motives. The billionaire recently folded his own AI venture, xAI, maker of the chatbot Grok, into SpaceX, which is reportedly valued at about $1.25 trillion and may also pursue a public offering.

Who Else Is Testifying and What's at Stake?

Greg Brockman, OpenAI's co-founder and president, faced questioning from Musk's lawyers on Monday in the Oakland courthouse. Sam Altman, who has transformed from being Musk's protege into a bitter rival over the past decade, is not expected to take the stand until the week of May 11. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, whose company is accused of illegally funding OpenAI's commercial transformation, may also testify this week.

The stakes could not be higher. If Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers ultimately rules in favor of Musk, OpenAI's IPO could be jeopardized, potentially reshaping the global AI landscape where major players like Google and Chinese tech firms are competing aggressively. OpenAI is also facing growing competition from Anthropic and its Claude model. While the AI sector is already generating tens of billions in annual revenue, those figures still fall short of the massive investments required for talent, advanced processors, and the construction of energy-intensive data centers powering the AI revolution.

During the trial, Altman and Brockman sat in the front row for almost the entire hearing and made no statements inside or outside the courtroom. The trial has drawn intense media attention, with dozens of journalists covering the hearings daily.

How to Understand the Core Issues in the OpenAI Dispute

• Nonprofit vs. For-Profit Structure: OpenAI's current structure operates under a nonprofit parent entity but functions as a highly lucrative for-profit enterprise, which Musk argues violates the company's founding principles.
• Musk's Financial Contribution: Musk claims he invested $38 million between 2016 and 2020 to ensure AI remained free from profit-driven pressures, but was later excluded from decision-making.
• Microsoft's Role: OpenAI's legal team faces accusations that Microsoft illegally funded the company's transformation into a commercial operation, a claim that could influence the trial's outcome.

The trial represents a pivotal moment not just for OpenAI, but for how the entire AI industry will be regulated and structured going forward. The company is currently valued at over $850 billion and is preparing for an IPO that could make it one of the most valuable public companies in the world.

What Does Sam Altman Say About AI's Impact on Jobs?

Beyond the courtroom drama, Altman has been vocal about one of the most pressing concerns surrounding AI: its impact on employment. At the India AI Impact Summit in February, Altman addressed the phenomenon of "AI washing," where companies falsely attribute workforce reductions to artificial intelligence when they would have happened anyway.

"I don't know what the exact percentage is, but there's some AI washing where people are blaming AI for layoffs that they would otherwise do, and then there's some real displacement by AI of different kinds of jobs," said Sam Altman.

Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI

Altman's comments come as debate continues over AI's true impact on the labor force. A study published in February by the National Bureau of Economic Research found that of thousands of surveyed C-suite executives across the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, and Australia, nearly 90 percent said AI had no impact on workplace employment over the past three years following the late-2022 release of ChatGPT.

However, the picture is more complicated than the headline numbers suggest. Prominent tech leaders like Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei have warned of a white-collar bloodbath, with AI potentially wiping out 50 percent of entry-level office jobs. Snap CEO Evan Spiegel has already made workforce reductions citing AI, announcing in April the company would lay off about 1,000 staff members, or about 16 percent of its workforce. Around 40 percent of employers expect to follow Spiegel's lead in culling staff down the line as a result of AI, according to the 2025 World Economic Forum Future of Jobs Report.

Altman clarified that he anticipates more job displacement as a result of AI, as well as the emergence of new roles complementing the technology. "We'll find new kinds of jobs, as we do with every tech revolution," he said. "But I would expect that the real impact of AI doing jobs in the next few years will begin to be palpable".

Altman

Data from a recent Yale Budget Lab report suggests Altman and Amodei's vision of mass worker displacement from AI is not certain and is not yet here. Using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Current Population Survey, the research found no significant differences in the rate of change of occupations' mix or length of unemployment for individuals with jobs that have high exposure to AI from the release of ChatGPT through March 2026.

The disconnect between predictions and current data has led some economists to attribute the practice of AI washing to companies passing off diminished margins and revenue from a failure to effectively navigate cautious consumers and geopolitical tensions to AI. This era of waiting for the effects of AI to take hold rhymes with the 1980s IT boom, when economist and Nobel laureate Robert Solow observed little productivity gains in the personal computer age despite prognostications of a productivity surge.