Closing arguments in Musk v. Altman are scheduled for Thursday morning in San Francisco. The trial produced two contradictory founding accounts under oath: Sam Altman testified that Elon Musk demanded 90 percent equity when OpenAI was being structured, a demand Altman said he rejected as incompatible with the nonprofit mission. Musk's account is different. Both versions are in the trial record. [1]

The verdict carries consequences beyond the founding dispute. OpenAI has been pursuing a for-profit conversion — a restructuring of the organization's governance and capital structure that Musk's suit has sought to block or complicate. A ruling in Musk's favor could impose constraints on that conversion. A ruling for Altman clears the legal path more completely. Neither outcome resolves the underlying question of what OpenAI is supposed to be — a nonprofit lab, a capped-profit company, or a full commercial enterprise — but it would remove or preserve one legal obstacle.

Thursday is also the day Cerebras begins trading on Nasdaq under CBRS, with OpenAI as its disclosed warrant-holding customer. The two events will be processed by the same market in the same morning. Altman runs the company holding those warrants. Musk's lawyers will be making their final case in a courtroom three miles from the exchange. The AI sector's morning is not small. [1]

-- THEO KAPLAN, San Francisco