Hard Fork AI Elon Musk Seeks $134B from OpenAI and Microsoft
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Jan 19, 2026 Elon Musk's lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft over alleged wrongful gains is shaking the tech world. Unsealed documents reveal internal debates and Musk's pivotal early contributions to OpenAI, including funding and recruitment efforts. Diary entries expose tensions within leadership while economist valuations raise eyebrows. Hear snippets of Satya Nadella's deposition as Musk's preference for Microsoft over Amazon surfaces. With a possible spring trial looming, the drama is just heating up!
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Musk's Core Financial Claim
- Elon Musk claims his early $38M and recruiting drove the bulk of OpenAI's initial value creation.
- He argues those contributions justify seeking $79–$134 billion as "wrongful gains."
Defense Attacks Valuation Basis
- OpenAI and Microsoft challenge the valuation method as speculative and request exclusion of the economist's testimony.
- The defendants say Musk knew about plans for a capped for-profit structure and deny wrongdoing.
Unsealed Docs Reveal Early Debates
- Over 100 internal documents — emails, texts, and diary entries — were unsealed during discovery and revealed early debates and outreach.
- The materials include exchanges between Musk, Sam Altman, Greg Brockman, and Satya Nadella showing recruiting and partnership talks.