Elon Musk won a pretrial ruling Friday that bars OpenAI from questioning him about his alleged ketamine use during the upcoming jury trial over whether the AI company defrauded him by abandoning its nonprofit roots.

U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers said the drug questions would be irrelevant unless OpenAI provides more concrete evidence about ketamine’s effects.

She did allow limited questioning about Musk’s attendance at Burning Man, where OpenAI’s attorneys say significant communications between the two sides took place.

Trial Starts April 28

The trial is expected to last about four weeks. The jury will decide whether OpenAI co-founders Sam Altman and Greg Brockman lied about maintaining a nonprofit structure when Musk donated $38 million in seed funding.

Musk is seeking up to $134 billion in damages from OpenAI and Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT).

His expert witness calculated that Musk could be entitled to between $79 billion and $134 billion in ill-gotten profits, roughly 2,900 times what he originally invested. The judge called the methodology “not particularly persuasive” but declined to throw it out.

Altman, Musk, former OpenAI Chief Scientist Ilya Sutskever, and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella are all expected to testify. Altman has previously tweeted that he is “really excited to get Elon under oath.”

Bettors Are Turning Against Musk

Polymarket’s “Will Elon Musk win his case against Sam Altman?” contract sits at 28% Yes, with over $84,000 wagered. On Kalshi, Elon’s chances are higher, at 36%, with over $300,000 wagered.

That is a dramatic reversal. Odds were as high as 60% after Greg Brockman’s private diary entries were unsealed.

The judge dismissed Musk’s strongest claim for breach of express contract last year, leaving him reliant on harder-to-prove implied contract and unjust enrichment theories.

Why Microsoft Investors Should Care

Microsoft is named as a co-defendant in the suit and holds a stake in OpenAI valued at roughly $135 billion after the company’s recent recapitalization.

MSFT is already down 18% year-to-date and reports earnings April 30, just two days after the trial begins.

A large adverse verdict looks unlikely at 28% odds, but four weeks of live testimony probing the origins of Microsoft’s $13 billion OpenAI investment could surface uncomfortable details heading into an earnings call where investors are already questioning AI spending returns.

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