Elon Musk vs. Sam Altman: What you need to know as the OpenAI trial opens

Here is the weather forecast for the next few weeks inside the federal courthouse in Oakland, Calif. — clouded with the possibility of a world tea spill.

Jury selection began Monday in Musk v. Altman, the Elon Musk-Sam Altman lawsuit regarding Musk’s lawsuit was filed two years ago. But the 12 chosen citizens may not be ready for the level of sordid drama that is about to unfold.

How dirty is it? Corporate litigator Andrew Staltman, who has been watching Musk’s case for years, provided the most memorable summary so far. “We are about to see the Hindenberg go down from the deck of the Titanic,” said Staltman Washington Post. “It’s going to be crazy and bad.”

That might sound like high-profile theater for the pilot episode of “Real Housewives of Silicon Valley.” But if anything, it undersells the reality-show fireworks that might explode during this research. Altman (a celebrity, as this month’s Ronan Farrow reveals in New Yorker made clear) and Musk (who has failed to keep his promises many times, most recently promising Tesla’s fully self-driving capabilities) appear to be talking about each other under oath.

What’s at stake in the Musk-Altman case

At stake in the long-awaited trial is whether Musk was defrauded in 2019. That’s the year Altman, who co-founded OpenAI with Musk and others, led the company’s pivot from a nonprofit to a for-profit business.

If the Oakland jury agrees with Musk’s fraud allegations, that could throw a huge wrench in OpenAI’s anticipated 2026 IPO (the company currently has a market value north of $850 billion). Musk’s lawyers say OpenAI owes Musk as much as $138 billion.

But when it comes to these billions, it’s not about money. Musk, after all, has sued Altman and his colleagues personallyinstead of OpenAI the company. Altman and Musk have a relationship that Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, a friend of theirs who also appears in court documents, may have coined the “complicated” label.

If you need convincing, think of the tea that has already been spilled. Here’s a quick rundown of the eye-popping revelations from the court papers so far — and it’s all federal judge, Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, has. already it is considered the essence of the case.

1. What is Musk doing at Burning Man?

Many dreams and schemes are hatched among members of the tech elite at the annual desert festival in northern Nevada; for many in Silicon Valley, Musk included, Burning Man is a holiday and a religion. But never one of those rambling conversations became the focus of the case.

In particular, we are talking about Burning Man 2017, where the theme was “Radical Ritual” – which was said by the Burning Man organization to cover “the mysterious place between respect and mockery, faith and belief, absurdity and the fantastic.”

That explanation could equally apply to the lawsuit, and in particular, the attempt by Altman’s lawyers to question whether Musk could remember the OpenAI conversations while he was struggling in the desert.

“Remember, at Burning Man 2017, he was eating a rhino cat?” That’s what Altman’s lawyers asked Musk during his deposition. Musk said he didn’t know what a rhinoceros kit was; amphetamines mixed with ketamine, apparently, and the name of a 2024 song by Irish hip-hop group Kneecap.

“It is significant that Musk spent many days at Burning Man during negotiations that he now says he does not remember,” Altman’s lawyers said. “It speaks to the seriousness with which he took the discussions, and his focus, or lack thereof, on the future of OpenAI.”

Judge Rogers ruled that Musk’s ketamine use is out of bounds in itself — asking about it could be “unfairly prejudicial,” he wrote in a pretrial ruling — but that “amnesia” based on that use might be appropriate. Musk said he takes ketamine prescribed to treat depression.

Musk’s presence at Burning Man, however, “comes with the attention he paid to his discussions with OpenAI, which may have been happening at the same time,” Rogers noted.

What does this mean: A “rhino cat” won’t be mentioned in court, but a less specific “amnesia” might. And get ready for the test of entering the surreal world of Black Rock City – full of art cars, wild costumes, and bright black body paint – as Musk’s experience nine years ago is recreated. What happens at Burning Man may not stay at Burning Man.

2. Was Musk’s co-parent an OpenAI spy?

Reality shows often offer some kind of mommy-baby drama. But this time, spilling the tea on one of Musk’s many parents – Shivon Zilis – was deemed more than just gossip.

That’s because Zilis, a VC and AI expert, is more than just the mother of Musk’s four children. (Musk has a total of 14 children with four co-parents.) He is what Altman calls in his deposition “the Elon whisperer” — a longtime partner who worked with him at Tesla and Neuralink. Zilis and Musk met after joining OpenAI in 2016. He was the youngest member of OpenAI’s board before stepping down in 2023.

In 2018, with the death of the document in court papers, Zilis asked Musk whether he should “remain close and friendly with OpenAI to keep the information flowing” or “start to distance himself” from the company. Musk, who had just stepped down from OpenAI’s board at the time, replied: “closer and friendlier.”

Musk’s attorneys, who want to prove that Microsoft’s significant investment in OpenAI violates OpenAI’s nonprofit structure, are relying in part on Zilis’ testimony. But OpenAI says Zilis is in trouble. Rogers determined that the relationship between Musk and Zilis was “critical to Zilis’ credibility.” Zilis revealed in his book that their relationship is currently romantic.

What does this mean: Look for Altman’s lawyers to argue that the romance part dates back to 2016 and wasn’t disclosed at the time. So we may be trawling through personal messages between the two, reading curious details such as Zilis being saved by Musk on his phone under the name “Schrodinger’s cat.”

3. Did Mark Zuckerberg check Musk’s post?

Altman’s lawyers may want to prove that even the biggest names in the tech world tend to kowtow to Musk. If a violent tech giant has Silicon Valley running in fear of him, the thinking goes, that makes it less likely that Altman will be tricked into restructuring OpenAI — and more likely that the case will be futile.

Court papers have been filed several times in which Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Meta, sought to curry favor with Musk. And this after Musk mocked Zuckerberg online, then publicly challenged the Meta boss to a cage match in 2023 and 2024.

“Looks like DOGE is making progress,” Zuckerberg texted Musk on Feb. 2025, as the controversial agency took the dangerous ball to the US government and its employees were collecting public security data. He then promised to block the real names of people like Big Balls who are called cybercriminals.

Revealing the names of government employees is illegal; they must work for (and be paid for) the people. But that was not the spirit of Zuckerberg’s message. “I have warned our teams to take down content that is doxxing or threatening people on your team,” Zuckerberg wrote. Musk liked the message, and asked Zuckerberg if he would be interested in joining his bid to take over OpenAI. The two agreed that they would talk on the phone, although we do not know if the call actually went through.

A $97 billion takeover bid led by Musk, announced a few days later, was rejected by Altman with a standing ovation that reflected their relationship. “No thanks but we will buy twitter for $9.74 billion,” Altman wrote on X.

4. ‘Jeff is a tool’: Is Silicon Valley high school?

Altman’s jibe is simply an excellent point The girls said Snow. Musk v. Altman contains many such cases. In 2016, for example, the two men were debating whether OpenAI should use Microsoft or Amazon for its server farms — an important question, as it turns out. Musk chose Microsoft over Amazon, based, apparently, on the personalities of their CEOs.

“I think it’s Jeff [Bezos] it is a minor tool and Satya [Nadella] it’s not, so I like Microsoft a little bit,” Musk wrote in an email. In his post, when asked about the “tool” comment, Musk doubled down before suggesting that it wasn’t a permanent situation: “There could be, you know … there’s a redemption arc for all of us.”

As if this experiment wasn’t high school enough, there’s also a diary involved, belonging to Greg Brockman, OpenAI’s president and co-founder. “This is the only chance we have to get out of Elon,” Brockman wrote in a partially redacted filing filed by Musk’s lawyers. This was in 2017, when OpenAI began to consider restructuring. “Financially what will get me to $1 B[illion]?” he added.

Brockman, who was forced to turn over the diary in March, complained to X.

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But in the end it doesn’t get high school any more than the Altman-Musk relationship itself. “It really hurts when you publicly attack OpenAI,” Altman wrote to Musk in 2023, according to the filing. Why? Because “you are my hero.”

Surprisingly, Musk sent an apology message. But then he added a phrase that puzzled Altman, and that, if it remains his belief in court, guarantees fireworks between the two.

“It was not my intention to hurt you, for which I apologize,” Musk wrote. “But the fate of civilization is at stake.”