The legal war between Elon Musk and OpenAI took a sharper turn over the weekend after court filings revealed Musk allegedly warned OpenAI president Greg Brockman that he and CEO Sam Altman would become “the most hated men in America” if they refused to settle the case before trial.

The disclosure emerged in a filing submitted Sunday by lawyers representing Altman and Brockman in the closely watched California civil trial, which has increasingly evolved into a broader fight over the future control, governance, and economics of artificial intelligence.

According to the filing, Musk contacted Brockman around April 25, just two days before trial proceedings began, to test whether OpenAI’s leadership was interested in reaching a settlement.

Brockman reportedly replied by proposing that both parties withdraw their claims. The filing says Musk then responded: “By the end of this week, you and Sam will be the most hated men in America. If you insist, so it will be.”

Lawyers for OpenAI’s executives are now seeking to have the exchange admitted into evidence, arguing it demonstrates Musk’s underlying motivation in the lawsuit and supports their claim that the litigation is tied to competitive tensions in the AI industry.

The filing argues the message “tends to prove motive and bias,” particularly that Musk’s objective is to damage a rival AI company and its leadership.

The courtroom battle has become one of the most consequential disputes in the global AI industry because it sits at the intersection of corporate control, nonprofit governance, investor influence, and the commercial race to dominate generative AI.

Musk sued OpenAI, Altman, and Brockman in 2024, accusing the company’s leadership of betraying its original nonprofit mission. He claims he donated roughly $38 million to help establish OpenAI in 2015 on the understanding that the organization would develop artificial intelligence for the benefit of humanity rather than private financial gain.

Musk’s argument is centered on OpenAI’s evolution from a nonprofit research lab into a hybrid structure dominated by a rapidly expanding for-profit arm now valued at more than $800 billion. The xAI founder has repeatedly described the transition as a “bait-and-switch,” accusing OpenAI executives of commercializing technology originally developed under a public-interest mandate.

Taking the witness stand last week, Musk told the court: “Essentially, they’re trying to steal a charity, and we’re trying to stop them.”

The case has become even more politically and commercially sensitive because Musk now directly competes with OpenAI through his AI company, xAI, creator of the Grok chatbot.

That competitive overlap has allowed OpenAI’s legal team to frame the lawsuit as part ideological dispute, part corporate warfare. The tensions also expose the increasingly fractured alliances among Silicon Valley’s most influential AI figures.

Musk was one of OpenAI’s original co-founders alongside Altman, Brockman, Ilya Sutskever, and others. But relationships deteriorated after Musk departed the organization in 2018 following disagreements over governance, strategy, and commercial direction. Since then, OpenAI’s rise has fundamentally reshaped the technology industry and triggered one of the largest infrastructure and investment booms in Silicon Valley history.

The company’s launch of ChatGPT in late 2022 ignited a global race among technology firms to build increasingly powerful AI systems. Microsoft, Amazon, Google, and Meta have collectively committed hundreds of billions of dollars toward AI infrastructure, data centers, and specialized chips.

OpenAI’s partnership with Microsoft has been particularly contentious for Musk, who has criticized the company’s deep commercial ties and its shift toward proprietary products. The latest filing also suggests the trial may delve deeper into private internal communications from OpenAI’s formative years.

Brockman is expected to testify on Monday and could face questioning about diary entries written before Musk’s departure from the company. One entry cited in the filing states: “His story will correctly be that we weren’t honest with him in the end about still wanting to do the for-profit just without him.”

That statement could prove important because it appears to acknowledge internal discussions about transitioning toward a for-profit structure while Musk remained involved. Legal experts say the trial could have implications far beyond the parties involved. A ruling against OpenAI could complicate governance structures increasingly used by AI companies seeking to balance nonprofit missions with enormous capital requirements.

The case also highlights growing tensions within the AI sector over whether frontier AI systems should remain mission-driven public-interest projects or evolve into conventional profit-maximizing corporations competing for dominance in a trillion-dollar industry.

The trial comes as scrutiny intensifies globally over the concentration of power in artificial intelligence, especially among a small group of technology executives and firms controlling the world’s most advanced AI models, computing infrastructure, and data resources.

CNBC host Jim Cramer said investors should resist the temptation to retreat from equities during geopolitical market selloffs, arguing that the real long-term opportunity lies in companies driving the rapid transformation toward an AI- and compute-powered economy.

Speaking Monday on CNBC’s “Mad Money,” Cramer said the latest market volatility tied to renewed Middle East tensions does not alter what he sees as the dominant structural force shaping markets: the explosive growth of artificial intelligence, cloud infrastructure, and data-center computing.

“What you really would need to own are the companies that actually dominate the new economy,” Cramer said, pointing to technology and infrastructure firms tied to AI workloads and digital computing demand.

His remarks came after the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell more than 1% while oil prices and U.S. Treasury yields surged amid fears that tensions in the Middle East could escalate further and disrupt global energy markets.

International benchmark Brent crude has surged above $110 a barrel in recent weeks as traders price in the risk of prolonged instability around the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most critical energy chokepoints. Rising oil prices have simultaneously pushed inflation concerns back into focus, complicating expectations for central bank interest-rate cuts.

Cramer acknowledged that geopolitical shocks still matter to investors, particularly through their effect on oil prices, inflation, and borrowing costs. However, he argued that the modern U.S. economy is increasingly being driven by computing infrastructure rather than traditional industrial cycles.

“This economy is a computer-driven economy,” he said. “We run on compute.”

That viewpoint points to a broader shift underway across Wall Street, where investors have increasingly separated AI-linked technology companies from the rest of the economy. While many sectors remain vulnerable to high interest rates and slowing growth, AI infrastructure spending has continued to accelerate at an extraordinary pace.

Major technology firms, including Amazon, Microsoft, Alphabet, and Meta, are collectively expected to spend hundreds of billions of dollars this year on AI data centers, networking systems, and specialized chips. That spending boom has become one of the strongest forces supporting equity markets in 2026, particularly across semiconductor, cloud, and infrastructure-related stocks.

Cramer singled out Amazon as a company well-positioned to weather economic pressure because of its scale, logistics capabilities, and dominance in cloud computing through Amazon Web Services.

He argued that Amazon’s business model benefits both from AI infrastructure demand and from consumer behavior during periods of economic strain, as households often shift spending toward lower-cost retailers when inflation rises.

“Higher interest rates can fell many a company,” Cramer said. “But if you want to guess who’ll be the last man standing, you could do a lot worse than betting on Amazon.”

His comments align with a growing Wall Street narrative that hyperscalers and AI infrastructure providers have become increasingly insulated from cyclical slowdowns because AI spending is now viewed as strategically unavoidable.

Executives from major cloud providers have repeatedly indicated that AI infrastructure investment is no longer discretionary. Instead, it is increasingly treated as foundational spending necessary to remain competitive.

That dynamic has fueled a powerful rally in technology stocks this year. The Nasdaq Composite recently recorded its strongest monthly performance since the early stages of the Covid pandemic, driven largely by surging demand tied to AI infrastructure, semiconductors, and data-center expansion.

Chipmakers including Nvidia, AMD, and Broadcom have emerged as major beneficiaries of the spending wave, while data-center suppliers, networking firms, and cloud operators have also seen valuations climb sharply.

Cramer suggested that investors focusing too heavily on short-term geopolitical volatility may be missing the scale of the technological transition underway.

“The computer-driven economy doesn’t care much about oil or interest rates,” he said. “The drive of computers is going in one direction, higher.”

Still, some analysts caution that the sector’s resilience could eventually be tested if energy costs continue rising sharply or if sustained inflation forces central banks to keep interest rates elevated longer than expected.

The AI boom itself is also contributing to rising electricity demand globally, increasing pressure on energy infrastructure and creating new vulnerabilities tied to power supply and commodity costs.

Nevertheless, many investors continue treating AI infrastructure as one of the few areas of the global economy still delivering strong and durable growth despite mounting geopolitical uncertainty.

Cramer’s comments capture the increasingly dominant belief on Wall Street that the next phase of economic expansion will be driven less by traditional consumer cycles and more by computing power, AI systems, and the infrastructure supporting them.

For investors, that has turned ownership of AI-linked companies from a speculative trade into what many now view as a core long-term market strategy.

Palantir Technologies is leaning hard into the surging economics of AI usage, with its executives declaring that tokens, the basic unit of computation in large language models, have become the new fuel powering enterprise AI adoption.

On its first-quarter earnings call Monday, Chief Technology Officer Shyam Sankar highlighted record token consumption on the company’s Artificial Intelligence Platform (AIP), noting that rapidly falling costs are paradoxically driving higher usage rather than curbing it.

“Tokens are the new coal,” Sankar said. “AIP is the train.”

He invoked the Jevons paradox to explain the phenomenon: “When the Victorians built more efficient steam engines, everyone assumed coal consumption would fall. Instead, it skyrocketed.”

This dynamic is playing out in real time at Palantir. As the cost per token drops, customers are deploying AI more aggressively across their operations, burning through far more tokens than expected. For Palantir, this translates into accelerating platform usage and stronger revenue momentum.

However, Sankar was quick to draw a firm boundary. Palantir is deliberately positioning itself as a “no slop zone,” pushing back against the industry tendency toward flashy but low-value AI experiments.

“More tokens means more slop,” Sankar said, criticizing the practice of “tokenmaxxing” — maximizing usage for its own sake rather than driving measurable business outcomes.

This disciplined approach appears to be resonating with customers. Palantir posted robust first-quarter results and significantly raised its full-year outlook, reinforcing its status as one of the clearest winners in the enterprise and government AI software market.

Strong Results Across the Board

For the quarter ended March 31, Palantir reported revenue of $1.63 billion, beating Wall Street expectations of $1.54 billion. Adjusted earnings per share came in at 33 cents, ahead of the 28 cents forecasted.

Growth was particularly impressive on the commercial side, with U.S. commercial revenue exploding 133% year-over-year to $595 million. U.S. government revenue rose 84% to $687 million, helping drive overall revenue up 85% to $1.6 billion. U.S. revenue doubled to $1.28 billion.

CEO Alex Karp struck a bullish tone in his letter to shareholders. He said: “The United States remains the center, the constant core, of our business. And that business is erupting.”

Buoyed by demand, Palantir raised its fiscal 2026 revenue guidance to $7.65–$7.66 billion, up from the prior range of $7.18–$7.20 billion. It also increased its U.S. commercial revenue target to more than $3.22 billion. For the second quarter, the company expects revenue between $1.797 billion and $1.801 billion, comfortably above consensus estimates of $1.68 billion.

Palantir’s government business continues to benefit from the growing role of AI in modern warfare. Its Maven AI system, which supports data analysis and real-time targeting decisions, became an official “program of record” for the Pentagon in March — a designation that locks in long-term funding and institutional adoption across the U.S. military. The company also recently secured a $300 million contract with the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

On the commercial front, enterprises are increasingly turning to Palantir’s platforms to integrate disparate data sources and automate complex operational decisions. The combination of sticky government contracts and accelerating commercial wins has created a powerful dual growth engine.

While many AI companies are chasing raw usage volume, Palantir is betting that customers ultimately want reliable, high-impact systems rather than experimental demos. By focusing on practical deployments and warning against “AI slop,” the company is trying to build a reputation for quality and ROI in a market increasingly flooded with hype.

This approach seems to be paying off. Palantir’s ability to deliver tangible results for large organizations, particularly in complex environments like defense, intelligence, and heavy industry, sets it apart from pure-play AI model providers and more generic software vendors.

Palantir has come a long way from its early days, focused primarily on government intelligence work. It is now firmly established as a major player in the enterprise AI space, with a growing commercial book and a defensible position in high-stakes national security applications.

As token consumption continues to surge and AI becomes more deeply embedded in organizational workflows, Palantir’s “no slop zone” philosophy could prove to be a significant competitive advantage, helping it win and retain customers who are growing weary of flashy but ineffective AI experiments.

U.S. stock futures were little changed late Monday after a broad market selloff driven by renewed fears that tensions in the Middle East could spiral into a deeper regional conflict, threatening global energy supplies and reigniting inflation concerns across financial markets.

Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the S&P 500, and the Nasdaq 100 all hovered near flat levels in overnight trading, suggesting investors were attempting to stabilize sentiment after a volatile regular session in which geopolitical anxiety overshadowed otherwise resilient corporate fundamentals.

The muted overnight moves followed a sharp decline on Wall Street Monday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average falling 557.37 points, or 1.13%. The S&P 500 lost 0.41%, while the Nasdaq Composite slipped 0.19%, outperforming broader indexes as investors continued rotating toward technology and artificial intelligence-linked companies viewed as relatively insulated from geopolitical shocks.

The latest wave of volatility was triggered after the United Arab Emirates accused Iran of launching missile and drone attacks against the Gulf state, further straining an already fragile ceasefire framework involving Tehran and Washington.

The renewed confrontation revived fears that the conflict could once again disrupt shipping routes and oil infrastructure across the Gulf, particularly around the Strait of Hormuz, the critical maritime chokepoint through which roughly one-fifth of global oil supplies move.

The U.S. military added to the tension after reports emerged that American naval forces had engaged Iranian vessels near the strait. Adm. Brad Cooper, commander of U.S. Central Command, said American forces had “eliminated six small Iranian boats” that were allegedly attempting to interfere with commercial shipping operations.

Iranian state media denied the claims, underscoring the fog of information surrounding the rapidly evolving conflict. The geopolitical uncertainty initially pushed oil prices higher during Monday’s regular trading session, amplifying investor concerns that prolonged instability in the Gulf could deepen the ongoing global energy shock already tied to the war.

However, crude prices eased slightly in extended trading, with U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures falling about 1% to $105.39 a barrel, suggesting traders remain uncertain about whether the latest escalation will materially worsen supply disruptions in the near term.

However, analysts warn that energy markets remain extremely vulnerable to sudden spikes, particularly if attacks intensify around shipping infrastructure or if Hormuz remains partially constrained for an extended period.

The market reaction highlighted a broader tension currently shaping global investing: whether the enormous momentum behind artificial intelligence, strong corporate earnings, and resilient consumer demand can continue to offset mounting geopolitical and macroeconomic risks.

So far, many investors appear to believe the answer is yes. Morgan Stanley Wealth Management’s head of market research and strategy, Dan Skelly, argued Monday that markets have increasingly learned to treat geopolitical flare-ups as temporary disruptions rather than long-term structural threats.

“You’ve seen this pattern before where — last year in April, with Liberation Day — big sell-off, big recovery,” Skelly said on CNBC’s “Closing Bell: Overtime.”

“Now with the war in the Middle East, it’s almost like the market is treating geopolitics and some of these domestic policy shocks like pop-up ads along a longer, winding narrative centered on AI, the economy and resilient earnings,” he added.

That assessment indicates how dramatically investor psychology has shifted over the past year. While wars, inflation spikes, and trade disruptions continue to generate short-term volatility, capital markets remain heavily focused on the AI investment cycle, which is driving unprecedented spending on data centers, semiconductors, cloud computing, and digital infrastructure.

Technology companies tied to artificial intelligence have become the market’s dominant growth engine, helping support major indexes even as geopolitical tensions intensify. The Nasdaq’s relatively smaller decline on Monday compared with the Dow reflected that dynamic. Investors continued to gravitate toward megacap technology names viewed as beneficiaries of the AI boom, while economically sensitive sectors tied to industrial activity, transportation, and consumer spending faced heavier pressure.

At the same time, the conflict’s inflationary implications remain a growing concern for policymakers and investors alike. Rising oil prices threaten to complicate the Federal Reserve’s efforts to maintain progress on inflation while supporting economic growth. Higher fuel costs can quickly ripple through transportation, manufacturing, and consumer goods pricing, raising fears of a second inflation wave at a time when borrowing costs remain elevated.

That backdrop makes this week’s economic data especially important. Investors are closely watching Tuesday’s release of the U.S. trade deficit report and the latest Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, commonly known as JOLTS, for signs of whether the labor market and broader economy remain resilient under mounting geopolitical pressure.

Corporate earnings will also remain in focus, with major companies including Pfizer, DuPont, PayPal, HSBC, Anheuser-Busch InBev, Marathon Petroleum, Duke Energy, and Shopify scheduled to report results before Tuesday’s opening bell.

Those earnings reports are expected to provide further insight into how companies are navigating an increasingly complex operating environment shaped by war-driven energy volatility, supply chain uncertainty, and continued heavy investment in AI infrastructure.

His Excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has graciously granted four patents we filed locally for our upcoming securities exchange, Contisx Securities Exchange Plc. We are also pursuing corresponding global patents to ensure proper protection of the intellectual capital behind this mission. This is not an aggressive IP posture, but a necessary step to safeguard the innovations we are building.

At Contisx, we have developed new protocols tailored to the African context, reimagining how capital markets can drive investment inclusion and accelerate shared prosperity. These innovations are being translated into new technology and process stacks designed for scale, access, and efficiency.

One of the granted patents is titled: “System and Method for Bilateral Negotiation-Based Electronic Trading of Heterogeneous Financial Instruments with Automated Matching and Custodied Settlement.”

We believe this framework addresses a foundational challenge within our markets and will contribute meaningfully to their evolution especially at the “Main Street”, not just the “Wal Street” level in Africa.

Mr. President, we are grateful for the grant of these rights. Additional applications are in progress as we continue to build with focus and urgency.