COURT

Judge calls out Musk and Altman's "billionaires vs billionaires" legal theater

A federal judge delivered the kind of judicial eye-roll that perfectly captures the absurdity of Silicon Valley's latest grudge match. US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers accused both Elon Musk and Sam Altman of "gamesmanship" in their year-long legal battle, granting Musk a minor victory while making clear she's tired of both sides wasting court time.

The dispute centers on Musk's racketeering lawsuit against OpenAI, which he co-founded in 2015 before departing amid internal power struggles. Musk claims he was misled into funding what he believed would remain a nonprofit dedicated to developing AI for humanity's benefit, only to watch Altman transform it into a for-profit juggernaut (now worth $300b)

On Tuesday, Rogers struck down 16 of OpenAI's 55 affirmative defenses, calling them "plainly insufficiently alleged, irrelevant, redundant or immaterial." But she wasn't done there. She also chastised Musk's lawyers for trying to eliminate all defenses rather than taking "the high road," writing that "the court will not waste precious judicial resources on the parties' gamesmanship."

This isn't Rogers' first display of exasperation. She previously characterized the dispute as "billionaires versus billionaires," questioning how Musk could claim irreparable harm when he's raised $11 billion for his rival xAI.

The stakes here are actually significant:

• OpenAI faces pressure to complete its for-profit conversion by 2026 or risk having recent funding convert to debt

• Musk's $97.4 billion takeover bid was rejected by OpenAI's board in February

• The dispute affects OpenAI's ability to raise additional capital from SoftBank and others

• Both companies are jockeying for political influence under the Trump administration (which Altman seems to be winning)

Musk positions himself as the defender of OpenAI's original altruistic mission, conveniently ignoring that OpenAI claims he wanted majority equity and CEO control when he pushed for for-profit status in 2017. Altman, meanwhile, frames this as bad-faith litigation designed to slow down a competitor.

Look, I get why this story is catnip for the tech press. Two of the most powerful people in AI going at each other in court while a judge basically tells them to grow up? It's irresistible.

The truth probably lies somewhere in the messy middle that nobody wants to admit. Both Musk and Altman likely believed in OpenAI's mission while also recognizing the enormous financial opportunity. Both probably compromised those ideals when it became expedient. And both are now rewriting history to make themselves look like the good guy.

Judge Rogers deserves credit for calling out the performative nature of much of this litigation. Her frustration reflects what many of us feel watching this circus unfold. 

With a March 2026 trial date set, buckle up for more of the same.

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THE AI RACE

Zuckerberg declares superintelligence "in sight" after billion-dollar hiring spree

Mark Zuckerberg just posted a video manifesto declaring that developing superintelligence is "now in sight" and promising to deliver "personal superintelligence for everyone" through Meta's new approach.

The timing isn't coincidental. Zuckerberg released the video hours before Meta's earnings report, after months of spending unprecedented sums to build what he calls his "superintelligence" team.

The numbers behind Meta's AI push are staggering:

• $14.3 billion investment in Scale AI to hire its CEO Alexandr Wang as Chief AI Officer

• Compensation packages worth hundreds of millions to poach talent from OpenAI, Google and Apple

• Seven researchers from OpenAI, two from Google DeepMind already recruited to Meta Superintelligence Labs

Zuckerberg's vision differs sharply from competitors. While others focus on automating work, he wants AI that helps people "achieve your goals, create what you want to see in the world, be a better friend" delivered through personal devices like smart glasses.

The approach reflects Meta's consumer-focused DNA, but it's also incredibly expensive. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman claimed Meta offered his employees $100 million signing bonuses to jump ship.

Zuckerberg frames this as a pivotal moment, writing that "the rest of this decade seems likely to be the decisive period" for determining whether superintelligence becomes "a tool for personal empowerment or a force focused on replacing large swaths of society."

His bet is clear: spend whatever it takes to win the race, then sell the future through Ray-Ban smart glasses.

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FINANCIAL

GPU futures market launches with Nobel Prize-winning auction theory

OneChronos and Auctionomics launched the world's first tradable financial market for GPU compute on July 29, creating a futures-style exchange where buyers and sellers can trade access to graphics processing units.

The partnership brings together Y Combinator-backed OneChronos with Auctionomics, co-founded by Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Milgrom. Auctionomics has "quietly come to dominate the industry of market design," helping clients save billions on winning bids.

The move validates what existing GPU marketplace players have been saying. We've had conversations with the SF Compute team, whose CEO Evan Conrad has outlined his vision for treating GPUs like commodities. "We think you should solve this the same way you do with commodities — with a liquid market," SF Compute states.

In a recent podcast, Conrad described the end goal: "The ultimate end state is GPU that trade like other perishable, staple commodities of the world - oil, soybeans, milk." He's been building what he calls a "forward market" where participants can "financially engineer" GPU access.

OneChronos and Auctionomics are now making that vision reality through periodic auctions that let participants bid on GPU time slots like commodities. The system uses combinatorial auctions where buyers can bundle requests for specific GPU types, durations and locations.

Key advantages:

• Startups can lock in GPU capacity at predictable prices

• Data center operators can sell excess inventory or secure financing

• Eliminates inefficiencies of existing one-sided spot markets

"We're not completely reinventing the wheel," Milgrom told Upstarts. "It's helping people monetize their inventory, finance their investments, and manage their risk."

LINKS

• Microsoft's Azure cloud revenue surges as AI spending pays off

• Google set to sign EU code of practice on development of AI

• Meta faces Italian competition investigation over WhatsApp AI chatbot

• AI finance app Ramp is valued at $22.5b in funding round

• Meta’s Reality Labs posts $4.53b loss in second quarter

• Amazon to pay New York Times at least $20m/year in AI deal

• Apple slams DOJ lawsuit: ’threatens the very principles that set iPhone apart’

• Inside the collapse of Builder.ai: Was it even an AI company?

• ChatGPT Study Mode: A new mode to chat and learn with ChatGPT

• GLM 4.5: Z.ai’s new AI model

• Peec AI: Tracks how your company ranks on AI search platforms (LLMs)

• Aeneas: Google’s new model for contextualizing ancient inscriptions

• Palantir: Information Security Engineer, Internship

• Waymo: Product Operations Technology Manager

• XAI: AI Engineer - Multimodal

• Scale AI: Staff Product Designer, Gen AI

GAMES

A QUICK POLL BEFORE YOU GO