Elon Musk has dramatically escalated his long-running legal battle against OpenAI and Microsoft, filing court documents that demand between $79 billion and $134 billion in damages. The claim, described by Musk’s legal team as recovery of “wrongful gains,” stems from allegations that OpenAI betrayed its founding nonprofit mission by shifting toward a for-profit structure and forging a deep partnership with Microsoft.
According to the Friday filing in U.S. federal court in Oakland, Musk — who co-founded OpenAI in 2015 as a nonprofit dedicated to developing artificial intelligence safely and for the benefit of humanity — contributed approximately $38 million, accounting for roughly 60% of the organization’s early seed funding. He also provided key support by recruiting talent, making industry introductions, and sharing expertise on scaling businesses.
Musk’s lawyers argue that these contributions were instrumental in OpenAI’s early success and that the company defrauded him by abandoning its original mission. Financial economist C. Paul Wazzan, serving as Musk’s expert witness, calculated that OpenAI derived $65.5 billion to $109.4 billion in alleged wrongful gains from Musk’s involvement, while Microsoft benefited by $13.3 billion to $25.1 billion through its multibillion-dollar investment and partnership.
“Just as an early investor in a startup company may realize gains many orders of magnitude greater than the investor’s initial investment, the wrongful gains that OpenAI and Microsoft have earned — and which Mr. Musk is now entitled to disgorge — are much larger than Mr. Musk’s initial contributions,” Musk’s lead trial attorney, Steven Molo, stated. Molo emphasized: “Without Elon Musk, there’d be no OpenAI. He provided the bulk of the seed funding, lent his reputation, and taught them all he knows about scaling a business.”
The lawsuit, which began in 2024 and has intensified amid OpenAI’s 2025 restructuring (retaining a nonprofit board while operating profit-driven entities), accuses the company of breaching founding agreements. Musk left OpenAI’s board in 2018 over strategic disagreements and later launched his competing AI venture, xAI, which develops the Grok chatbot.
A federal judge in Oakland recently ruled that sufficient evidence exists for claims including breach of contract and fraud, allowing the case to proceed to a jury trial tentatively scheduled for late April 2026.
OpenAI has dismissed the suit as “baseless” and characterized it as part of Musk’s “ongoing pattern of harassment,” particularly given his role as a direct competitor. The company has challenged Wazzan’s analysis as “made up,” “unverifiable,” and “unprecedented,” urging the court to exclude it from evidence to prevent misleading the jury. Microsoft has denied any wrongdoing, with a company lawyer stating there is no proof it “aided and abetted” OpenAI.
Neither OpenAI nor Microsoft immediately commented on the specific damages figure outside business hours on Friday.
The case highlights deep tensions in the AI industry over mission integrity, competition, and the transition from nonprofit ideals to massive commercial valuations — OpenAI is reportedly valued around $500 billion in recent funding discussions. Musk’s filing leaves open the possibility of additional punitive damages or injunctions if liability is established.
The trial could set significant precedents for how early contributors and mission-based organizations handle shifts to profit-driven models in the rapidly evolving world of artificial intelligence.