The legal conflict between Elon Musk and the AI giants OpenAI and Microsoft is reaching historic dimensions.
• Elon Musk According to a new court filing, is demanding three-digit million sums in compensation
• Claim based on Musk’s original investment of $38 million
• The jury trial is scheduled to begin in April 2026
In court documents, the Tesla CEO is demanding record compensation totaling up to $134 billion. While Musk accuses the companies of betraying the founding mission, the defendants describe the claims as unprecedented and purely fictitious.
The accusation: “selling out” the founding mission
At the center of the current legal dispute is the fundamental transformation of OpenAI from a non-profit organization to a commercial actor. An official memorandum from Musk’s lawyers, filed in US District Court on January 6, 2026, states that OpenAI has abandoned its original mission and transformed into a for-profit system. The document states that Elon Musk was persuaded to contribute significant funds through false promises. Specifically, he invested around $38 million, which corresponded to around 60 percent of the early financing, and gave the project immediate credibility through his reputation. According to the memorandum, the defendants actively downplayed their commercial goals in communications with Musk as they gradually transformed the company.
The $134 billion bill
The financial consequences of this accusation are quantified precisely for the first time in the “Notice of Remedies” submitted on January 16, 2026. Based on the calculations of the expert Dr. C. Paul Wazzan demands that Musk return his ill-gotten gains. The claim against OpenAI amounts to a sum between 65.50 billion and 109.43 billion US dollars. In the case of Microsoft, a profit skimming of between 13.30 billion and 25.06 billion US dollars is sought. Added together, this results in a total claim of up to 134.49 billion US dollars. Musk’s lawyer Steven Molo compares the situation in the written submissions to that of a founder or early investor who is entitled to an exponential increase in value since the company is now valued at hundreds of billions of dollars.
OpenAI counterattacks Elon Musk: Accusation of “harassment campaign”
A Microsoft lawyer told Reuters that there was no evidence that Microsoft assisted OpenAI in an alleged breach of contract. In a joint application, both companies also asked the court to exclude the damage amounts calculated by Musk’s experts from the trial as unverifiable and fabricated. In parallel, OpenAI published a blog post accusing Musk of selectively citing evidence. OpenAI claims that Musk agreed to a for-profit structure in 2017, but negotiations failed because he demanded absolute control and integration into his company Tesla.
How Microsoft investors react
The news of the new billion-dollar claims was received relatively calmly on the stock market. Microsoft shares rose 0.70 percent to $459.86 on the NASDAQ on Friday. There will be no trading on US stock exchanges on Monday due to Martin Luther King Day, giving investors time to assess the significance of the “Notice of Remedies”. A judge in Oakland has already decided that the case will be tried by a jury, with the trial expected to begin in April 2026. In addition to the confiscation of profits, according to the available documents, Musk also reserves the right to demand punitive damages and interim injunctions.
Editorial team finanzen.net
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