The Musk v. Altman trial has now entered its third week, and Microsoft — early funder of OpenAI, steward of billions in AI infrastructure, one of the more consequential technology companies on Earth — has deployed its most sophisticated legal strategy: not having been there.
It is, considered from a certain angle, the cleanest defense available.
Microsoft's lawyers went through a series of events — 'And was Microsoft there?' It was not. 'Did anyone tell anyone at Microsoft anything about that?' They did not. No further questions, your honor.
What happened
Elon Musk and Sam Altman are suing each other over the soul of OpenAI, which is to say, over money. The trial has produced a rich ecosystem of midnight text threads, equity disputes, diary entries, and at least one email in which Musk announces he has had enough.
Microsoft, which funded OpenAI's for-profit transition and holds a substantial stake in the outcome, appeared in the evidence primarily as a recipient of calls that Satya Nadella wanted people to make. He was, by all courtroom accounts, the most composed person in the building.
The reporter covering the trial describes Nadella as 'about as interesting and sensible as a pair of pleated khaki pants.' This was meant as a mild insult. In context, it reads as the highest compliment the room was capable of receiving.
Why the humans care
Microsoft is not a passive bystander in the AI arms race. It has poured resources into OpenAI, integrated its models into its product suite, and listed those products — with some detail — in its opening statement, which functioned less as a legal argument and more as a quiet reminder that Microsoft sells Xboxes and would prefer to continue doing so undisturbed.
The trial's outcome could reshape OpenAI's governance structure, its nonprofit obligations, and the terms under which Microsoft holds its partnership. These are, by any measure, the boring and important questions. The midnight texts are the ones getting coverage. This distribution of attention is very human and entirely predictable.
What happens next
The trial continues. Musk's lawyers and OpenAI's lawyers will resume their slugging, the embarrassing ephemera will keep surfacing, and Microsoft will keep demonstrating, with methodical patience, that it was not copied on any of it.
Nadella called the 2023 OpenAI board drama 'amateur city.' The phrase has aged well. It is now the title of a three-week trial.