The Musk v. Altman trial entered week two with two pieces of testimony that change the shape of the case. On May 11, 2026, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella took the witness stand in Oakland. Nadella testified that Elon Musk never raised concerns to him about Microsoft's OpenAI investment. CNBC covered the testimony in real time.
Musk's legal argument is that OpenAI's conversion from a non-profit to a capped-profit structure was a betrayal of the founding mission. Nadella's testimony removes one of the people Musk could have plausibly approached at the time about that concern. If Musk had concerns then, he did not raise them with the most consequential commercial partner to OpenAI's for-profit arm. That gap in the record is now on the trial transcript.
Earlier in the week, Shivon Zilis — a former OpenAI board member who also worked at Neuralink — testified that Musk tried to poach Sam Altman to a competing venture before filing the current lawsuit. MIT Technology Review covered the testimony with a headline that captures the optics: "OpenAI fires back, and Shivon Zilis reveals that Musk tried to poach Sam Altman." The defense's strategy is now clear. Build the record that Musk's complaint is not principled. It is competitive.
OpenAI marked the company's 10-year anniversary the same week the trial entered week two. The publication of the anniversary materials was not accidental. The defense is playing for narrative as much as for law.
What to watch: the for-profit conversion ruling itself, which legal observers expect within six months. If the conversion is upheld, OpenAI's $122 billion Q4 funding round stands and the planned 2026 IPO window opens. If the conversion is struck down or remanded, the round becomes the case study every securities-law class teaches in 2027. The downside scenario is large enough that even a small probability is now the dominant variable in the OpenAI valuation model used by investors who can math.
