“They stole a charity.” “He didn’t get his way.” The Musk-Altman trial opened with two stories that cannot both be true.

Opening arguments in Musk v. Altman began Tuesday in Oakland. Musk’s lawyer Steven Molo told the jury “the defendants stole a charity” and used a museum/Picasso analogy. OpenAI’s William Savitt countered that Musk “didn’t get his way” and wanted to merge OpenAI into Tesla. Key exhibit: a Shivon Zilis email showing Musk was presented with for-profit options. Musk took the stand as the first witness, renouncing personal damages and pledging any award to OpenAI’s nonprofit. The judge warned Musk about his “Scam Altman” social media posts.

“Ladies and gentlemen, we are here today because the defendants in this case stole a charity.” That was how Steven Molo, Elon Musk’s lead trial lawyer, opened the most consequential technology trial in a generation on Tuesday morning in an Oakland federal courtroom. Molo told the nine-person advisory jury that without Musk, “there would be no OpenAI, pure ...