Altman, Musk and the A.I. Spectacle Come to ‘The Town’

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Altman, Musk and the A.I. Spectacle Come to ‘The Town’

Oakland, Calif., where Elon Musk’s trial against OpenAI and its chief executive, Sam Altman, starts on Monday, is not exactly known as a hub of the tech industry.

The Ronald V. Dellums Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse in Oakland.

Altman, Musk and the A.I. Spectacle Come to ‘The Town’

Oakland, Calif., where Elon Musk’s trial against OpenAI and its chief executive, Sam Altman, starts on Monday, is not exactly known as a hub of the tech industry.

The Ronald V. Dellums Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse in Oakland.

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By

Kalley Huang

Photographs by

Jason Henry

Reporting from the Ronald V. Dellums U.S. Courthouse in Oakland, Calif.

April 27, 2026

Over the next month or so, a who’s who of the technology industry is expected to appear in the Ronald V. Dellums U.S. Courthouse in Oakland, Calif., for a legal showdown between Elon Musk and the artificial intelligence company OpenAI.

Mr. Musk, the richest man in the world, should spend quality time on a witness stand, as will Sam Altman, the billionaire chief executive of OpenAI.

Satya Nadella, Microsoft’s chief executive, is expected to testify. Shivon Zilis, a former OpenAI board member and the mother of at least four of Mr. Musk’s children, is on the witness list. So is Tasha McCauley, another former OpenAI board member who tried to fire Mr. Altman.

That Oakland is playing host to this tech industry pantheon is one of the many oddities in this high-stakes trial. While plenty of tech workers live in Oakland, only a handful of tech companies are based in “The Town,” as locals call it. The go-go tech culture of San Francisco and Silicon Valley is notably absent in this city, even though it is only about 12 miles from OpenAI’s headquarters.

“Oakland is an interesting city for this to happen in, because we’re kind of thought of as the other town,” said Lesley Mandros Bell, an artist and teacher who has lived in Oakland for nearly four decades.

Image

Oakland’s downtown is still bouncing back from its pandemic slump.

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