Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO Elon Musk threatened OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Greg Brockman two days before their trial began, warning they would become “the most hated men in America” if they refused to settle.

Musk sent the message on April 25 to gauge interest in a settlement, according to a court filing made Sunday.

When Brockman replied suggesting both sides drop their claims, Musk fired back: “By the end of this week, you and Sam will be the most hated men in America. If you insist, so it will be.”

OpenAI’s lawyers want the text entered into evidence as Brockman takes the stand Monday. The filing says the message tends to prove Musk’s motive and bias, and that his motivation for the lawsuit is to attack a competitor.

Kalshi Odds Crash 18 Points As Brockman Testifies

Kalshi traders price Musk’s chances of winning the suit at 38%, down from 56% last week. Polymarket has him lower still at 33%. Each market has different resolution criteria, with Polymarket setting a higher bar for what counts as a Musk win.

A separate Polymarket contract gives a 70% chance Musk and Altman do not reach a settlement before a verdict.

Musk is suing OpenAI, Altman, Brockman and Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) for $150 billion, alleging the company betrayed its nonprofit mission after he donated $38 million in seed funding.

U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers is hearing the case in Oakland.

xAI Rivalry Front And Center

Musk testified last week that OpenAI tried to “steal a charity.”

Under cross-examination, he conceded xAI had “partly” distilled OpenAI’s models to train Grok, a practice banned under OpenAI’s terms of service.

OpenAI’s lawyers have cast the suit as a competitive hit job.

Musk merged xAI with SpaceX in February at a $250 billion valuation, betting on Grok to close the gap with the best performing frontier models.

But Polymarket traders only give xAI a 2% chance of having the best model in June. Anthropic is in first at 66%, with Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) in second with 25%.

Altman, Brockman and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella are all expected to testify later this month.

Image: Shutterstock