Musk Targets $134 Billion in Damages as Legal Battle with OpenAI and Microsoft Hits New Peak

Musk Targets $134 Billion in Damages as Legal Battle with OpenAI and Microsoft Hits New Peak

The legal warfare between tech titan Elon Musk and his former partners at OpenAI has taken a staggering financial turn. In a court filing submitted late yesterday, Musk’s legal team formally requested damages ranging from $79 billion to $134 billion from OpenAI Inc. and Microsoft. The demand follows a significant victory for Musk, as a federal judge recently rejected a final attempt by the tech giants to avoid a jury trial, which is now officially set to begin in April 2026 in Oakland, California.

At the heart of the lawsuit is Musk’s claim that he was “defrauded” into co-founding OpenAI in 2015. Musk argues that the company, which he helped start with an initial $38 million in seed money, has fundamentally betrayed its founding mission to develop Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) for the benefit of humanity as a non-profit.