The Wall Street Journal
Tech News Briefing
TUESDAY, MAY 19, 2026
5/19/2026 3:00:00 AMShare This Episode
A Verdict in Tech’s Trial of the Century
テック業界の「世紀の裁判」に評決
A jury has made a decision in the blockbuster trial between Elon Musk and OpenAI. WSJ deputy technology editor Bradley Olson breaks down what the decision means for the future of the company, and the broader AI industry. Plus, WSJ reporter Vicky Ge Huang takes us inside a crypto trading competition that’s the latest esports-style spectacle.
• esports-style /ˈiːspɔːrts staɪl/ eスポーツ風の
• spectacle /ˈspɛktəkəl/ 見世物、壮観なイベント
Imani Moise: Welcome to Tech News Briefing. It's Tuesday, May 19th. I'm Imani Moise for the Wall Street Journal. After several weeks of testimony, we've got a verdict in the landmark trial between Elon Musk and OpenAI. We're unpacking the jury's decision and what it could mean for the future of the AI industry. Then crypto trading is getting the esports treatment.
Audio: Eight traders step into the arena. Every man for themselves. Last two standing, go head-to-head. Winner takes all. Enter the arena.
Imani Moise: In Lower Manhattan, a boxing gym has become home to a new frontier of competition, a live trading battle. We'll take you inside the ring for one of these tournaments.
• new frontier /nuː frʌnˈtɪr/ 新たな最前線、新領域
But first, we're turning back to the legal battle. Yesterday, a jury unanimously dismissed Elon Musk's claims against OpenAI, ending a nearly month-long trial centering one of Silicon Valley's biggest power struggles. What started as a disagreement between co-founders became a legal fight that gripped the tech world. Elon Musk sued OpenAI and CEO, Sam Altman, accusing the startup of abandoning its original nonprofit mission as it transformed into one of the most valuable private companies in the world. The trial also pulled back the curtain on some of the most powerful personalities in tech, surfacing private text messages, diary entries, and details about Altman's personal investments. WSJ Deputy Chief Technology Editor, Bradley Olson, joins us now to explain the verdict and what it could mean for the future of the AI industry. And before we get into it, News Corp, the owner of the Wall Street Journal, has a content licensing partnership with OpenAI. So Brad, walk me through the jury's decision.
• unanimously /juːˈnænəməsli/ 全会一致で
• dismiss a claim /dɪsˈmɪs ə kleɪm/ 訴えを棄却する
• grip the tech world /ɡrɪp ðə tɛk wɜːrld/ テック業界を釘付けにする
• pull back the curtain /pʊl bæk ðə ˈkɜːrtən/ 舞台裏を明らかにする
Bradley Olson: Yeah. In the end, this came down to a technicality. So the jury decided that the claims that Elon brought against OpenAI and Sam Altman and the OpenAI President Greg Brockman on the legal claims, which were breach of charitable trust and then the other one was unjust enrichment, that both of those were past the statute of limitations. And so the judge accepted that verdict and dismissed the claims.
• bring a claim against /brɪŋ ə kleɪm əˈɡɛnst/ ～を訴える
• breach of charitable trust /briːtʃ əv ˈtʃærətəbl trʌst/ 慈善信託違反
• unjust enrichment /ʌnˈdʒʌst ɪnˈrɪtʃmənt/ 不当利得
• statute of limitations /ˈstætʃuːt əv ˌlɪməˈteɪʃənz/ 時効
Imani Moise: Is this the outcome that legal analysts were expecting?
Bradley Olson: We did a story before the trial basically saying that Musk was an underdog in the case. And we even looked at prediction markets, which had kind of found that to be true too, legal experts and prediction markets. And so yes, this was the outcome that was expected. However, there was a lot of evidence that kind of brought out maybe you could say the foundation story of AI. This was back in 2015. Elon Musk provided nearly 40 million in funds for OpenAI's nonprofit, and that's kind of the start of the AI revolution or one could look at the AI revolution as having started or heavily accelerated with those steps.
• underdog /ˈʌndərˌdɔːɡ/ 劣勢側、不利な側
• foundation story /faʊnˈdeɪʃən ˈstɔːri/ 起源の物語、創設時のストーリー
Imani Moise: So now that this verdict is in, what's next for Elon Musk? Can he appeal?
Bradley Olson: Yes. His attorney said that they want to reserve the right to appeal. He does have a track record, of course, of appealing and has won some appeals. One of the most famous that he won on appeal was a lawsuit over his pay package at Tesla. And he has strong views and perspectives on what fair play is in the market. And if he feels like he's been disadvantaged in any way, I think he's happy to settle a matter in court.
Imani Moise: We just got this verdict, so it may take time before we know the full extent of this, but how has the trial impacted the AI industry at large?
Bradley Olson: Well, I think in the end, anytime there's sort of a lot of information coming out and a dispute about who is responsible for something, right, who made a thing happen, who is the author of it, I think a lot of this trial ended up being about that. Elon kind of reminding everyone that he was there from the foundation of this thing and could even be considered a co-founder or someone who was in at the ground floor when OpenAI really became the thing, became a new company. The next step that we see is the public listings of these three main players. SpaceX, Elon Musk, his rocket company now owns his AI company, which was called xAI. And that's headed toward an IPO in less than a month. And then you also have OpenAI potentially doing an IPO and then it's rival Anthropic also doing an IPO. So there's going to be kind of a public market value attached to all these companies very soon. And so I think this trial kind of set the stage for that and is another marker of OpenAI kind of clearing another challenge or hurdle in its path to a public listing.
Imani Moise: Do you think any of the witnesses regret their testimony or what came out in court?
Bradley Olson: That's hard to say. I mean, it's a great question. Anytime you get people like Elon Musk in a trial setting, it's unusual. How many times does anyone tell Elon Musk what to do? But inside a federal courthouse, you kind of project an air of humility. And I think he was trying to give the jury his perspective on what happened. And when he faced cross-examination, he pushed back on a lot of the questions and there was kind of a bit of a joust. I don't know that he said anything in his testimony that he would say he regretted. But you get to witness this kind of acrimonious back and forth between these larger than life figures. It was similar for Sam Altman. He was challenged very heavily in cross-examination. I don't know that he revealed anything he didn't want to, but I think with these high stakes business litigation trials, whoever wins or loses, a lot of detail comes out about these people that if they were choosing, they probably would choose to keep private.
• trial setting /ˈtraɪəl ˈsɛtɪŋ/ 裁判という場
• project an air of humility /prəˈdʒɛkt ən ɛr əv hjuːˈmɪləti/ 謙虚そうな雰囲気を見せる
• joust /dʒaʊst/ 激しい応酬、やり合い
• acrimonious /ˌækrəˈmoʊniəs/ 激しく険悪な
• larger-than-life /ˌlɑːrdʒər ðæn ˈlaɪf/ カリスマ的な、現実離れした存在感の
• high-stakes /ˈhaɪ steɪks/ 大きな利害が絡む
Imani Moise: When we look back on this case in a year or two, what do you think the takeaway is going to be?
Bradley Olson: I think we will look back on it as something that litigated the foundational moments of the AI boom. And then I think it also kind of brought us a new perspective and new information about some of these figures that are at the heart of this new technological revolution. So I think it'll be remembered for that if nothing else.
Imani Moise: That was WSJ Tech editor, Bradley Olson. What do you make of the verdict? If you're a listener on Spotify, let us know in a comment. Coming up, we're taking you inside a Manhattan Boxing Gym that's become home to a different form of competition, crypto trading. That's after the break.
Audio: Good evening and welcome for the first time ever to the Legend Trade Series presented by PolyMarket. We've got eight traders that are going to be entering this arena in just a moment.
Imani Moise: When the announcer calls it in arena, he means that literally. Inside the Church Street Boxing Gym, eight players sit inside the ring, starting with $25,000 of paper money and battling through three rounds of trading while excited spectators watch from the crowd and online livestream. The winner walks away with $10,000 and a Japanese katana. WSJ reporter Vicky Ge Huang went to see it firsthand and is here to tell us all about it. And before we get started, we should just note PolyMarket has a data partnership with Dow Jones, the publisher of The Wall Street Journal. Okay, Vicky, so you walk into this event, what did you see?
Vicky Ge Huang: I walked into this boxing gym, which is underground. So the lighting was quite dark and I saw a lot of monitors, a lot of chords, and a lot of screens showing the traders that are sitting inside the boxing ring. And obviously there was just a lot of people talking with each other and socializing.
Imani Moise: So how did trading become a spectator sport?
Vicky Ge Huang: Trading in crypto has always been kind of a phenomenon in the sense that the cryptocurrencies trade 24/7 and it's a global market. So because cryptocurrency is the kind of space where you have all these different currencies and some traders like this type of tokens more and others like other tokens more, there could be like factions or tribes. So it's naturally kind of like a battleground. And gradually it's evolved into this type of high production event where the companies that sponsor these competitions actually hire commentators. They put on live streams for these competitions. They also invite a lot of these professional crypto traders to join these competitions.
• spectator sport /ˈspɛkˌteɪtər spɔːrt/ 観戦型スポーツ
• token /ˈtoʊkən/ トークン、暗号資産銘柄
• faction /ˈfækʃən/ 派閥、グループ
• tribe /traɪb/ 部族、コミュニティ集団
• put on /pʊt ɑːn/ 開催する、上演する
Imani Moise: What's on the line for the people competing in these competitions?
Vicky Ge Huang: Their reputation to defend. Some of them are pseudonymous. They have online personalities and they have a huge following. So they have fans who would follow them and copy trade with them when they're in these competitions.
Imani Moise: How much of these tournaments are skill-based versus just gambling?
• on the line /ɑːn ðə laɪn/ 懸かっている
• pseudonymous /ˌsuːdəˈnɪməs/ 匿名・仮名の => pseudo（偽の）+ anonymous（匿名）
• copy trade /ˈkɑːpi treɪd/ 他人の取引を真似して売買する
• skill-based /ˈskɪl beɪst/ 実力ベースの
Vicky Ge Huang: I guess that's a perennial question of trading these days. There's been a lot of discussion about gamification, of trading and investing. And in this sense, even though they're trading paper money, which is not real money, a lot of the traders I talked to said they felt the adrenaline rush, they felt the excitement and thrill as if it's trading their real money. But when you ask them would they trade quite like this in real life, many of them gave pretty sensible answers about how you need to have a certain amount of money that you can afford to lose for these type of high leverage trading strategies, and you also need to have money that you put away for long-term investing.
• perennial question /pəˈrɛniəl ˈkwɛstʃən/ 長年繰り返される疑問
• gamification /ˌɡeɪməfəˈkeɪʃən/ ゲーム化
• sensible answer /ˈsɛnsəbəl ˈænsər/ 理性的な答え
• afford to lose /əˈfɔːrd tuː luːz/ 失っても耐えられる
• put away money /pʊt əˈweɪ ˈmʌni/ お金を蓄える、別に取っておく
Imani Moise: And in some cases, the spectators are placing bets themselves. Can you tell us a little bit about that?
Vicky Ge Huang: The spectators, as well as the audience watching the livestream, are placing bets on the prediction markets platform polymarket to bet who's going to be the winner. And that adds another dimension to the sort of entertainment and social energy of the event in the sense that you can not just watch, you can copy trade the trader you're betting on. You can also bet on who is going to win the competition with your own real money.
Imani Moise: Is this phenomenon unique to crypto culture or does it say something broader about where retail investing is headed?
Vicky Ge Huang: I don't think it's unique to crypto trading because we've also just seen the rise of meme stocks. And buying the dip as sort of this perennial condition in the stock market, it's just showing that investors today, especially this internet-native generation are demanding a more fond, social, and immersive way to trade. And the lines between trading and entertainment are becoming more and more blurred for better or worse.
• immersive /ɪˈmɜːrsɪv/ 没入感のある
• blurred /blɜːrd/ 曖昧になった
• for better or worse /fɔːr ˈbɛtər ɔːr wɜːrs/ 良くも悪くも
Imani Moise: That was WSJ reporter, Vicky Ge Huang. And that's it for Tech News Briefing. If you're a listener on Spotify, be sure to leave us a comment. Today's show is produced by Julie Chang and Danny Lewis with supervising producer Katie Ferguson. I'm Imani Moise for The Wall Street Journal. We'll be back later this morning with TNB Tech Minute. Thanks for listening.
What’s News
WEDNESDAY, MAY 20, 2026
5/20/2026 5:28:00 PMShare This Episode
OpenAI Is Making Plans to File to Go Public Very Soon
OpenAI、近く株式公開申請へ向け準備中
P.M. Edition for May 20. We’re exclusively reporting that ChatGPT maker OpenAI has been working with bankers to prepare to file for an initial public offering in the coming days or weeks. Reporter Berber Jin joins to discuss the timing of the possible IPO and what that could mean for OpenAI’s business. Plus, stocks of chipmakers like Intel, Micron and AMD have hit a volatile stretch after weeks of massive gains. We hear from WSJ reporter Jared Mitovich about why they’re now looking to Nvidia’s earnings for the path forward. The chip company reported its latest record quarter. And the Trump administration has charged former Cuban president Raúl Castro with murder as the U.S. continues its pressure campaign against the island nation’s Communist government. Alex Ossola hosts.
• initial public offering (IPO) /ɪˈnɪʃəl ˈpʌblɪk ˈɔːfərɪŋ/ 新規株式公開
• path forward /pæθ ˈfɔːrwərd/ 今後の方向性