Musk and Altman trial concludes as Trump’s tech trades draw scrutiny

The final week of the legal dispute between Elon Musk and Sam Altman concluded with court proceedings focused on undermining the credibility of both technology leaders. Lawyers presented arguments portraying Altman as engaging in dishonesty and self-dealing, while simultaneously depicting Musk as a power-seeker attempting to exert control over artificial general intelligence.

The trial also brought to light details regarding OpenAI’s contested nonprofit status and internal workplace dynamics, including an incident involving a golden trophy of a donkey’s ass awarded to an employee who had challenged Musk. Legal observer Michelle Kim, who has covered the proceedings from the outset, noted the intensity of the exchanges as the case reached its conclusion.

In a separate development involving the intersection of technology and politics, Donald Trump purchased hundreds of millions of dollars in technology stocks prior to implementing policy measures that benefited the sector. The acquisitions included shares in Nvidia, AMD, and Arm, occurring ahead of policy boosts for these firms.

Following the purchase of Palantir stock, Trump touted the company on his social media platform, Truth Social. The timing of these trades has drawn attention, particularly as US stock markets rose during a concurrent two-day summit in Beijing between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

During the summit, which addressed trade, artificial intelligence, and the Strait of Hormuz, Nvidia shares surged more than 2% following news that the US had approved the sale of H200 chips to Chinese firms. The event also saw the attendance of other major US technology executives, including Tim Cook and Jensen Huang.