The story Musk has told about his lawsuit is that it is about AI safety and a broken promise to keep OpenAI a charity.
A new filing from OpenAI's lawyers tells a different story. Two days before opening arguments, Musk wanted to settle.
OpenAI's lawyers said Sunday that on April 25, two days before the trial began, Musk texted OpenAI president and co-founder Greg Brockman to ask about a settlement.
Brockman replied with a counter offer, suggesting both sides simply drop their suits and walk away. Musk's response, according to the filing, was that by the end of the week he and Sam Altman would "be the most hated men in America."
The judge in Oakland ruled the texts could not be shown to the jury. But the filing made them public, so they are part of the story even if they never reach a juror.
Musk first filed his lawsuit in 2024, asking the court to undo OpenAI's for-profit setup, force the company to share its tech with the public, cancel Microsoft's deal with OpenAI, and pay him damages plus legal fees.
His lawyers said in a January filing that he should get up to $134 billion from OpenAI and Microsoft, which is also named as a defendant.
The settlement attempt cuts hard against the public version of the case. It is harder to argue the lawsuit is about saving AI from itself when the plaintiff was willing to walk away for the right deal two days before opening arguments.
OpenAI's countersuit makes that exact point, claiming Musk is using the case to slow down a rival company that grew faster than the one he helped start.
Microsoft (MSFT %) is named as a defendant alongside OpenAI, with billions of dollars in cloud and AI revenue tied to the deal Musk wants undone.
A win for Musk could force the court to break or rewrite Microsoft's licensing deal with OpenAI, which gives Microsoft access to OpenAI's tech in exchange for a share of profits.
A loss for Musk would clear a major legal cloud over the for-profit move. It would also strengthen OpenAI's path to going public, which the company has been quietly preparing for.
For Musk's own AI company, xAI, the case is also a chance to slow down a competitor while running his own race.
Brockman could be called to testify as soon as Monday. That puts the man on the other side of those texts in front of the jury.
Musk has already taken the stand and spent three days answering questions about how OpenAI got started and why he believes Altman and Brockman walked away from its first mission.
The trial is expected to run for several more weeks, with weeks of testimony from OpenAI executives still ahead.
The story so far is mostly about Musk. And now, his text messages.
