Elon Musk recently lost his lawsuit against OpenAI. On May 18, 2026, a federal jury ruled that he had waited too long to file the case, marking a major legal victory for Sam Altman and OpenAI. Altman stands as one of the most influential figures in artificial intelligence. Yet OpenAI’s origins trace back more than a decade, with Musk playing a foundational early role.
In 2014, Google acquired DeepMind, and one year later developed AlphaGo, which defeated European Go champion Fan Hui. This alarmed Musk, who feared that a single company might dominate powerful AI and endanger humanity. He advocated for a safe, open-source, and beneficial development of AI. Therefore, in 2015, Musk co-founded OpenAI as a nonprofit. Altman, who was then the president of startup accelerator and venture capital firm Y Combinator, became a key figure alongside him. Musk contributed roughly US$40-45 million (HK$312-351 million) and helped raise additional funding.
However, tensions grew as OpenAI required massive capital for AI research and development. Musk suggested a merger with Tesla, describing Tesla as OpenAI’s “cash cow” to counter Google. This was because Musk did not yet possess the enormous net worth he has today, making such an integration appealing. OpenAI’s team rejected the proposal, believing it conflicted with the organization’s mission of developing independent AI for the broad benefit of humanity, according to court and trial evidence.
Elon Musk left the board of OpenAI in February 2018 and criticized the organization for straying from its nonprofit mission. OpenAI then turned to Microsoft and secured a US$1 billion investment in 2019, followed by billions more in subsequent funding. Partnerships with Nvidia further propelled its growth, though a potential collaboration with Apple ultimately did not materialize.
The drama peaked in November 2023 when OpenAI’s board suddenly fired Altman. However, intense pressure from employees, investors, and Microsoft forced a rapid reversal. Just five days later, Altman was back as chief executive, most of the board members who had forced him out had resigned, and he returned with even stronger control.
Today, OpenAI is valued at over US$850 billion. Despite questions over integrity and trustworthiness in the tech industry, Altman played a central role in transforming OpenAI into one of the world’s most valuable companies.
Allen Au is a tech startup founder, AI architect, and YouTuber.
