The lawsuit in Silicon Valley is getting more and more outrageous. Elon Musk personally appeared in court to face off against Altman; these two went from entrepreneurial partners years ago to courtroom opponents. What exactly happened in between?

It all started in 2015. Musk was chatting with Google founders Page and Brin, discovering concerns about Google's pursuit of AI safety, and he wanted to establish an organization to balance that. He personally named OpenAI and invested between $38 million and $44 million in initial funding before 2016. Musk also personally recruited top talent, even greeting NVIDIA's Huang Renxun to bring in the first AI supercomputer, and directly contacted Microsoft’s Nadella as well.

Here’s the key point—Musk claims he was persuaded by Altman and Brockman that OpenAI would remain non-profit forever and that its code would be open source. But now? OpenAI is valued at $852 billion and has completely turned into a closed-source, profit-driven business monster. Musk bluntly stated in court that this is a betrayal of their original intent.

Musk’s lawyer was even harsher, calling it a carefully planned “plunder of charity”—using the guise of transparency and safety to trick Musk into investing. Now Musk is demanding the replacement of Altman and Brockman, and seeking damages between $138 billion and $180 billion, promising that if he wins, he will donate all to OpenAI’s non-profit division.

But OpenAI’s lawyer William Savitt isn’t buying it. They countered that Musk’s real goal is to control OpenAI. Evidence shows that in 2018, Musk even proposed merging OpenAI into Tesla, demanding an absolute majority stake. When Altman and the others refused, Musk angrily left the board and founded xAI. Savitt straightforwardly stated that Musk has never cared about AI safety or non-profit structures; what he truly wants is power.

The ripple effects of this lawsuit have already spilled into the crypto world. Altman’s associated Worldcoin (WLD) was mocked by Musk on social media as “Scam Altman,” sparking widespread community doubts about the token model and biometric data. WLD’s price plummeted from a high of $11.74 to just $0.28, a drop of over 97%, and on the day of the trial hearing, it fell another 3%. On-chain detective ZachXBT even pointed out that the tokenomics of the project are problematic.

Outside the courtroom, things are lively as well. Large protests gathered at the Oakland courthouse, holding signs against AI, criticizing Musk and Altman as billionaires developing tech that threatens jobs. Legal analysts note that selecting an unbiased jury in such a high-profile case is a major challenge. Current market predictions give Musk about a 40% chance of winning, with most experts expecting a settlement or forcing OpenAI to return more rights to the foundation.

The trial is expected to last about three more weeks, with Nadella, Altman, Brockman, and several early OpenAI engineers possibly testifying. This lawsuit has thoroughly exposed the tug-of-war between technological peak and capital expansion in the AI industry, and will determine the future decades’ core control over human technology. Truly the ultimate power game in Silicon Valley.