{"id":42111,"date":"2026-03-13T23:59:27","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T23:59:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/?p=42111"},"modified":"2026-03-13T23:59:27","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T23:59:27","slug":"elon-musks-134bn-claim-against-openai-rests-on-numbers-out-of-the-air-judge-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/?p=42111","title":{"rendered":"Elon Musk\u2019s $134bn claim against OpenAI rests on \u2018numbers out of the air\u2019, judge says"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> \n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for free<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__content-sign-up-topic-description o3-type-body-base\"><span>Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe class=\"article__content-sign-up-iframe close\" scrolling=\"no\" id=\"signUpIframe\" data-prev-url=\"\/register\/in-article-sign-up?ft-content-uuid=cef962a0-f6f2-4f05-ba66-5795aa05104d\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<div id=\"article-body\">\n<p>The judge in Elon Musk\u2019s more than $130bn lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft has suggested the billionaire\u2019s claim for damages is based on \u201cnumbers out of the air\u201d, but ruled he can still make his case to a jury.<\/p>\n<p>Lawyers for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/stream\/e3402603-d253-4aa1-ac4d-fc9bdbf4ccb8\" title=\"\" data-trackable=\"link\">OpenAI<\/a>, at a hearing on Friday, tried to convince Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers to dismiss evidence from an expert witness to support Musk\u2019s claim for $134bn in damages.<\/p>\n<p>The world\u2019s richest man argues OpenAI and chief executive Sam Altman defrauded him by abandoning its non-profit roots after he had made charitable donations to the AI lab a decade ago. A trial is set for April.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA jury is going to understand that [Musk\u2019s expert] is pulling these numbers out of the air,\u201d Rogers told a pre-trial hearing in California\u2019s northern district on Friday. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cDo I find it convincing? Not really. Based on what I\u2019ve seen, do I find it particularly persuasive? Not really,\u201d the judge added. <\/p>\n<p>But Rogers did not grant OpenAI\u2019s motion to dismiss the testimony, saying she was not prepared to make that decision on the basis of \u201ca five-page motion\u201d and would instead allow the jury to hear the evidence. <\/p>\n<p>The calculations of damages are at the heart of Musk\u2019s claim, which, if accepted by the jury, could put OpenAI on the hook for $109bn and Microsoft for $25bn. <\/p>\n<p>The judge commented in court on Friday that if she agreed to OpenAI\u2019s motion to exclude Musk\u2019s expert, \u201cthis trial is done, because they have no evidence of damages, right?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Musk\u2019s $134bn claim is based on an analysis by expert witness C Paul Wazzan, an economist at the consulting firm Berkeley Research Group and a venture capitalist. <\/p>\n<p>Wazzan concluded that Musk\u2019s early donation of $38mn, along with his non-monetary contributions to OpenAI, accounted for 50-75 per cent of the value of OpenAI\u2019s not-for-profit arm, which owns just over a quarter of the for-profit business, recently valued at $730bn. <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/stream\/fdf71598-69ee-4801-a704-df53f01ef286\" title=\"\" data-trackable=\"link\">Musk<\/a> co-founded OpenAI in 2015 and provided significant early investment and support, but left the board in 2018 after clashing with Altman. In 2023 Musk founded xAI, a rival AI lab that has since merged with his rocket company, SpaceX. <\/p>\n<p>OpenAI claims the lawsuit is driven by commercial motives and is part of \u201can ongoing pattern of harassment\u201d. <\/p>\n<p>Lawyers for OpenAI had sought to exclude portions of Wazzan\u2019s testimony. William Savitt, a partner at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen &amp; Katz, argued on Friday that there was \u201cno equation\u201d by which Wazzan had arrived at his conclusion and questioned his methodology. <\/p>\n<p>The trial is scheduled to begin on April 28, when Musk\u2019s lawyers will seek to demonstrate that OpenAI and Altman breached their contract and defrauded Musk. <\/p>\n<p>Earlier in the hearing, Rogers highlighted the challenge of selecting a jury for such a high-profile case. \u201cI don\u2019t know if I\u2019ll ask [prospective jurors] a question about billionaires as they are all billionaires, they are all equally liked or disliked.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/cef962a0-f6f2-4f05-ba66-5795aa05104d\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":42112,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","cs-entry","cs-video-wrap"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=42111"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42111\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/42112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}