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Elon Musk<\/span><\/p>\n Kathleen Sheffer For Forbes<\/small><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n Just hours ago, Elon Musk suffered a nasty loss in court \u2014 one that put an end to his $150 billion lawsuit against OpenAI. A jury said he waited too long to sue the AI behemoth and its cofounder and CEO Sam Altman, and the judge accepted that verdict, tossing Musk\u2019s claims that OpenAI\u2019s leaders had improperly converted a charity he helped fund into a for-profit business. <\/p>\n \u201cI think this is a dangerous precedent to set,\u201d Musk told Forbes<\/em> chief content officer Randall Lane at the Forbes<\/em> Innovation 250 celebration dinner in Palo Alto, his first interview since the verdict was handed down. \u201cIt means if somebody can take a nonprofit and convert it to a for-profit, that undermines all charitable giving in America.\u201d<\/p>\n The trial still did its damage. Three weeks of testimony put Musk, his xAI venture, Altman and OpenAI in the same bright, unflattering light, with all the messy founder-history and billionaire grievance culture that implies. The jury didn\u2019t have to decide who was right about \u201cthe mission.\u201d It only had to decide whether Musk was on time. He wasn\u2019t.<\/p>\n Musk\u2019s response has been to attack \u201cthe terrible activist Oakland judge\u201d in a now deleted X post to \u201cthey got away with it.\u201d In another more staid post, he argued the court never evaluated the merits of the case and accused Altman and Greg Brockman, co-founder and president of OpenAI, of enriching themselves by \u201cstealing a charity,\u201d framing his planned Ninth Circuit appeal as a moral crusade to stop a precedent that would invite philanthropic looting. That\u2019s his characterization \u2014 not a finding by the judge or the jury \u2014 and it\u2019s doing what it\u2019s designed to do: move the fight back onto Musk\u2019s preferred terrain, where he can litigate by declaration.<\/p>\n The lawsuit, first filed in 2024, corralled a who\u2019s who of Silicon Valley elite, including Musk, Altman, OpenAI President Greg Brockman and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. Throughout the proceedings, the trial laid bare the inner workings of one of the world\u2019s most powerful AI companies, including the events around Altman\u2019s brief ouster in 2023. The case also dug into OpenAI’s beginnings and Musk\u2019s $38 million in funding. \u201cWithout me, OpenAI wouldn\u2019t exist,\u201d Musk said on the stand, adding, \u201cI was a fool\u201d to give the fledgling startup money.<\/p>\n Musk was also asked about SpaceX. On Wednesday, SpaceX is expected to file for the biggest IPO of all time, a massive offering which seeks to raise as much as $75 billion at a valuation of more than $2 trillion. Shares, which will trade on NASDAQ under the ticker SPCX, bundle SpaceX\u2019s space and Starlink satellite operations with Musk\u2019s AI startup, xAI, which the space and defense company acquired in February. He declined to comment on the IPO.<\/p>\n Kathleen Sheffer For Forbes<\/small><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n Musk also made predictions about the advancement of AI and robotics in the next half-decade. \u201cIn five years, digital intelligence will exceed the sum of all human intelligence. In five years, there might be at least 100 million humanoid robots, but maybe a billion,\u201d he said. \u201cI predict the economy is probably twice its current size in five, maybe six, years. In five to seven years, you\u2019re going to hit a doubling period, in plus or minus a few years, you\u2019ll see giant changes.\u201d<\/p>\n Asked who his favorite entrepreneurs are, his first answer is obvious: Nikola Tesla, namesake of the electric car company he leads. Pressed further, he name checked Nvidia founder Jensen Huang. Musk also noted the rate of development in AI research is a \u201cheadspinner.\u201d \u201cWhen I go to sleep, there\u2019s an AI breakthrough, when I go to lunch there\u2019s an a breakthrough,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s pretty obvious we\u2019ll have AI that\u2019s vastly smarter than humans and in some way it already is,\u201d he continued, adding \u201cI hope it\u2019s nice to us.\u201d<\/p>\n When Lane asked Musk to talk about big ideas he hadn\u2019t had the chance to yet work on, Musk encouraged other entrepreneurs to look into boring tunnels for transportation, and creating new synthetic medicines using new RNA technologies. After thinking for a moment, he added that there was an opportunity in electric aircraft. \u201cI encourage other people to start tunnel companies,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of opportunity in tunnels. It\u2019s quite hard work building these things.\u201d<\/p>\n Musk doesn\u2019t think of himself through the lens of how his companies will be written about in history books. \u201cI don\u2019t really get up and say, what shall I innovate today,\u201d he said. \u201cIt really just is building the technologies necessary to extend life beyond earth.\u201d And what does Musk want to be remembered for in 250 years? \u201cHe played a useful role in the advancement of civilization.\u201d<\/p>\n This is a developing story…<\/em><\/p>\nMore From Forbes<\/h3>\n