A protester wears a "Stop AI" t-shirt outside the federal courthouse, as the trial in Elon Musk's lawsuit over OpenAI's for-profit conversion continues, in Oakland, California, U.S., May 14, 2026. REUTERS/Manuel Orbegozo
(Wall Street, New York) – Elon Musk and Sam Altman may be done facing off in court for now, but their bigger fight is shifting to Wall Street.
After Musk lost his lawsuit against OpenAI and Altman, both sides are turning toward what could become one of the biggest public-market showdowns in tech history. Musk’s SpaceX is reportedly preparing to release its IPO paperwork soon, while Altman’s OpenAI is also moving toward a possible public offering later this year.
The legal battle centered on Musk’s claim that OpenAI abandoned its original nonprofit mission after he helped launch the company in 2015. But the court did not rule on the core of that argument. Instead, an advisory jury found that Musk waited too long to bring the case, and the judge adopted that decision.
Musk is already expected to appeal, calling the ruling a technicality. That means the legal fight may not be completely over — but for investors, the more important question is now whether Musk and Altman can turn their companies into dominant public businesses.
SpaceX enters the conversation with enormous scale. The company has rocket launches, Starlink, xAI, X, and a growing list of artificial intelligence ambitions all tied into Musk’s wider empire. That could excite investors, but it also raises questions about how much one CEO can realistically manage at once.
OpenAI faces a different challenge. The company is at the center of the AI boom, but it needs massive amounts of cash to keep training and running cutting-edge models. Investors will want to know whether OpenAI can justify its sky-high valuation while competing with Anthropic, Google, Musk’s xAI, and other fast-moving rivals.
Altman’s court win gives OpenAI some breathing room, but the trial also put renewed attention on his leadership, the company’s governance, its cash burn, and the internal drama that led to his brief ouster in 2023.
The coming IPO race could define the next phase of the AI economy. SpaceX may hit the market first, giving Musk a chance to seize investor attention before OpenAI even gets to the starting line.
