Elon Musk Demands Record $134 Billion From OpenAI and Microsoft

The Unprecedented Damages Claim

Elon Musk wants OpenAI Inc. and Microsoft to pay him damages in the range of $79 billion to $134 billion over his claims that the generative AI company defrauded him by abandoning its nonprofit roots and partnering with the software giant. Combined, those figures bring the total potential damages to about $134 billion, making the case one of the largest monetary claims ever seen in the technology sector.

Musk's lawyer detailed the damages request in a court filing Friday, a day after a federal judge rejected a final bid by OpenAI and Microsoft to avoid a jury trial set for late April in Oakland, California. The figure comes from expert witness C. Paul Wazzan, a financial economist whose bio says he has been deposed nearly 100 times and testified at trial more than a dozen times in complex commercial litigation cases. Wazzan, who specializes in valuation and damages calculations in high-stakes disputes, determined that Musk is entitled to a hefty portion of OpenAI's current $500 billion valuation based on his $38 million seed donation when he co-founded the startup in 2015.

The Foundation of Musk's Claims

Musk, who co-founded OpenAI in 2015 and later launched rival AI firm xAI, alleges OpenAI misled him about its mission by abandoning its original nonprofit public-benefit purpose and shifting to a for-profit structure closely tied to Microsoft Corporation. Musk's filing says he contributed about $38 million, 60% of OpenAI's early seed funding, helped recruit staff, connect the founders with contacts and lend credibility to the project when it was created.

OpenAI gained between $65.5 ‍billion and $109.4 billion from the billionaire entrepreneur's ‍contributions when he was co-founding ‍what was then a startup from 2015, while Microsoft gained between $13.3 billion and $25.1 billion, Musk said in the federal court filing ahead of his trial against the two companies. "Without Elon Musk, there'd be no OpenAI. He provided the bulk of ‌the ‌seed funding, lent his reputation, and taught them all he knows ​about scaling a business. A pre-eminent expert quantified the value of that," Musk's lead trial lawyer Steven Molo said in a statement to Reuters.

Not Really About the Money

Musk's personal fortune currently hovers around $700 billion, making him by far the world's richest person. As Reuters recently noted, his wealth now exceeds that of Google co-founder Larry Page, the world's second-richest person, by a stunning $500 billion, according to Forbes' billionaires list. But the sheer scale of the damages demand underscores that this legal battle isn't really about the money. Against this backdrop, even a $134 billion payout from OpenAI would represent a relatively modest addition to Musk's wealth, likely reinforcing for those at OpenAI their characterization of the lawsuit as part of an "ongoing pattern of harassment" rather than a legitimate financial grievance.

OpenAI on Thursday told its investors and banking partners that it expects Elon Musk to make "deliberately outlandish" claims ahead of an April trial. OpenAI sent a letter Thursday to investors and banking partners warning that it expects Elon Musk to make "deliberately outlandish, attention-grabbing claims" as his lawsuit against the AI lab heads to trial in April. During the week, OpenAI called the lawsuit "baseless" and part of a "harassment" campaign by Musk. A Microsoft lawyer has said there is no evidence that the company "aided and abetted" OpenAI.

The Broader Battle for AI's Future

In September 2025, Musk's AI startup xAI filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging trade secret theft, claiming OpenAI improperly used confidential information to strengthen its own models. Earlier, in August 2025, xAI and X jointly filed a separate lawsuit against Apple and OpenAI in a federal court in Fort Worth, Texas. That case accuses Apple and OpenAI of working together to restrict competition in the AI market, allegedly giving ChatGPT preferential treatment and an unfair advantage over rival AI services, including xAI's Grok chatbot.

This case represents more than a financial dispute—it's fundamentally about who controls the future of artificial intelligence and whether the industry's most powerful players can abandon their founding promises in pursuit of profit. With a jury trial beginning April 27 , the tech world will watch as these titans battle over principles that could reshape how AI companies operate and honor their commitments to humanity's benefit.