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Original article: Musk vs. Altman: La pelea de dos magnates de la IA bajo la mirada de Karl Marx

By Leopoldo Lavín Mujica

«It’s not OK to steal a charity,» declared Elon Musk from the stand, hand raised, after swearing to tell the truth on Monday, April 27. «It’s not right to steal a charitable organization.»

Across the aisle, Sam Altman’s lawyer was eager to dismantle that statement: «We are not here because promises were broken. We are here because Musk didn’t get his way at OpenAI.»

Welcome to the trial of the century in tech. Two of the wealthiest capitalists on the planet – one boasting $839 billion, the other a mere $2 billion yet controlling an algorithm that thinks for a billion people – accuse each other of betraying the dream of creating AI «for the benefit of humanity.»

Meanwhile, outside the Oakland courthouse, long lines of journalists snaked around since dawn. Musk and Altman passed through security 15 minutes apart. They didn’t even share the same metal detector.

The Utopia that Became Plunder

What’s at stake, as discussed in financial circles, is the future of OpenAI: a company valued at around $730 billion, poised to go public this year for nearly a trillion. Musk is seeking $134 billion in damages, demanding Altman’s removal as CEO and the reversal of the company’s transformation into a for-profit entity.

But the core of the issue is much older and murkier. It’s the age-old story: two partners establish a utopia, realize the utopia is worth money, and end up hating each other over the distribution of profits. The only difference here is that this utopia was named «saving humanity from evil AI,» with profits measured in hundreds of billions.

Karl Marx diagnosed this over a century and a half ago in the Communist Manifesto. He spoke of how capitalism «drowned in the icy waters of calculated selfishness the sacred ecstasies of religious fervor, chivalrous enthusiasm, and petty-bourgeois sentimentality.» In other words: piety, brotherhood, and noble missions freeze when a price appears.

That’s exactly what happened at OpenAI. In 2015, Musk, Altman, and a handful of researchers founded a non-profit lab to counter Google. They promised transparency, open source, and AI «for everyone.»

In 2018, Musk left after a power struggle. In 2022, ChatGPT launched, and money began to pour in. By 2024, Musk had filed a lawsuit. In 2026, they found themselves facing each other in court.

The Savior Who Supports the Far Right

Musk presents himself to the jury as the hero of the narrative. His lawyer made him testify that he works between 80 and 100 hours a week, possesses no yachts or vacation homes, just $839 billion, and his sole motivation is to protect humanity.

He recounted a conversation with Larry Page, co-founder of Google: «What if AI wipes out all humans?» Musk asked. «That would be fine as long as artificial intelligence survives,» Page replied. An anecdote that, whether true or not, paints a world where tech billionaires see human extinction as an acceptable collateral damage. This is why Musk is preparing to emigrate to a planet B.

However, the same Musk who claims to save the world actively supports political groups that German intelligence services officially classified as confirmed right-wing extremists. In December 2024, he wrote an article in a German newspaper claiming, «Only the AfD can save Germany.» A month later, he appeared via video link at the campaign launch rally of that party, urging Germans to «overcome the guilt of the past.» Olaf Scholz’s government formally accused him of election interference.

It’s not just Germany. Musk has asserted that «Vox will win the upcoming elections» (the far-right party in Spain), has called for the release of Marine Le Pen in France, posed with Giorgia Meloni in Italy, and previously did so with Viktor Orbán in Hungary. He has built an international far-right network from his mobile phone, using the same social media platform X to brand Altman as «Scam Altman» and amplify critical articles against him.

And then there was the gesture on January 20, 2025, during Trump’s inauguration. Musk took to the stage, placed his hand on his chest, and extended it twice in a salute identified worldwide as Nazi. He labeled it a «dirty trick.» The Anti-Defamation League condemned him. And nothing happened.

Meanwhile, from his unofficial headquarters in Washington, dubbed the Government Efficiency Department, Musk has accessed classified data, fired thousands of public employees, and become the most powerful man in the U.S. government without winning a single election.

This is the champion of charity. This is the guardian of AI ethics.

The Prudent Technocrat and His Algorithm in Your Head

Altman is more discreet. He doesn’t make controversial salutes or fund far-right parties. He dresses in cool jackets, speaks softly, and donates to Democrats, though he also contributed a million dollars to Trump’s inauguration. His fortune, insignificant compared to Musk’s, remains obscene to any normal person: about $2 billion.

But Altman’s power is quieter and perhaps deeper. ChatGPT, his creation, is in the pockets of a billion people. It does not decide whom to vote for, but it determines how to write an email, how to argue an essay, how to console a friend, or how to express a wish. It’s building humanity’s externalized intelligence.

During the trial, OpenAI’s lawyer dropped a line that reveals more than it intends: «Musk never genuinely cared whether OpenAI was non-profit. What mattered to him was that Elon Musk was on top.» He concluded: «Since he couldn’t control OpenAI, he left it. He left it for dead.» He even stated that Musk «didn’t quite understand artificial intelligence.»

It does not matter if it’s true. What’s relevant is that while Musk launched his own profit-driven AI venture, xAI, now integrated into SpaceX, Altman and his team pressed on, rolled out ChatGPT, and began attempting to change the world. This was intolerable for Musk. «Because he’s a competitor,» the lawyer said, «he’ll do anything to attack OpenAI.”

The Icy Waters of Calculated Selfishness

What Marx described as the triumph of «calculated selfishness» over any genuine human bond unfolds before our eyes.

Musk and Altman were colleagues. They shared pizza in 2015 imagining how they would save the world from killer AIs. Today they call each other «scam» and «liar» in the hallways of a courthouse. One claims to defend charity while normalizing Nazi salutes, financing European far-right movements, and accumulating the greatest personal fortune in history. The other claims to uphold transparency while building a global cognitive monopoly and mingling unbothered with Trump.

Both are products and symptoms of the same system. Both embody that phrase from Marx that should be engraved at the entrance of Silicon Valley: capitalism «has left no bond between men other than naked self-interest, than the insensible ‘cash payment.'»

The question as the trial progresses is not who will win. That matters little. The question is why two billionaires who could use their fortunes and influence to actually save lives or protect democracies prefer to fight in court over who gets a bigger slice of the AI pie.

And complicity isn’t just theirs. Governments that claim to support order, like José Antonio Kast’s in Chile, draft laws allowing large digital platforms to appropriate and extract, without regard for copyright, the product of the work done by journalists, artists, and creators in Chile.

For the economic power and its political arms, creativity and information are neither cultural goods nor rights: they are mere data—merchandise/raw materials—that feed the algorithm of the moment.

An article in Kast’s proposed “National Reconstruction Law” would allow tech companies to use protected works without paying a dime, as long as it’s for «statistical analysis.» It’s the expropriation of thought in the name of innovation, the definitive triumph of data over the creator.

And the question for us, those watching from the outside, is even more uncomfortable: why do we continue to applaud while they decide how we think, what we feel, and who governs?

When the trial concludes, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers has promised that it «will merely be a case of broken promises, nothing technical.» Musk will return to X to insult Altman, and Altman will head back to his office to continue training the algorithm that will write his children’s emails.

Outside the courthouse, in the real streets, there are protests against data centers that consume entire rivers. There are teachers unsure if their students wrote the essay or if ChatGPT did. There are parents watching their children learn from a chat that has no ethics, only an owner.

The icy waters of calculated selfishness have already reached our necks. And we are all the new proletarians producing data for the tech lords who then exploit it to manipulate and seize minds.

Leopoldo Lavín Mujica

Sources: The New York Times, The Guardian, German intelligence service, court statements from Oakland. The thesis on capitalism is from Karl Marx, Communist Manifesto, 1848. The present context is from April 2026.

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