A US federal judge set a March trial in Elon Musk’s challenge to Sam Altman’s plans to overhaul OpenAI’s business structure, setting the stage for a high-stakes clash between the two billionaires.
US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in Oakland, California, put the trial on her calendar for March 16 during a hearing on Friday after previously pledging to fast-track it rather than let it linger until 2027.
Gonzalez Rogers last month rejected Musk’s request to temporarily pause the ChatGPT creator’s transformation from a non-profit to a more conventional, public benefit for-profit company. But she called for an expedited trial on the “core” claim from Musk’s 2024 lawsuit that OpenAI’s restructuring plan is unlawful.
Having a firm trial date could impact decisions made by OpenAI’s board on choosing a strategy to shift to a for-profit business model.
It is also possible that the trial will begin after OpenAI has completed this shift: the start-up is already in talks with officials in Delaware and California over its restructuring plans, and the size of its latest funding round is partly dependent on completing its restructuring process by the end of 2025.
Musk, who worked together with Altman to establish OpenAI in 2015, now claims that the San Francisco-based start-up retreated from its founding purpose as a charity when it accepted billions of dollars in backing from Microsoft Corp starting in 2019 – the year after Musk left OpenAI’s board.
