OAKLAND, April 4 (Reuters) - - Billionaire Elon Musk's

lawsuit against OpenAI will go to a jury trial in spring 2026,

the federal judge presiding over the case decided on Friday.

Last month, OpenAI and Musk agreed to fast-track a trial over

OpenAI's for-profit shift, the latest turn in a grudge

match between the world's richest person and OpenAI CEO Sam

Altman playing out publicly in court.

The judge, Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers of the U.S. District Court for

the Northern District of California, had denied Musk's request

to pause the ChatGPT maker's transition to a for-profit model

and instead proposed an expedited trial.

Musk cofounded OpenAI with Altman in 2015 but left before

the company took off and subsequently founded the competing

startup xAI in 2023. xAI last month acquired Musk's social media

company X in a deal that values X at $33 billion and allows the

value of his artificial intelligence firm to be shared with

co-investors in X.

Last year, Musk, who is also the CEO of Tesla, sued

OpenAI and Altman, accusing OpenAI of straying from its founding

mission - to develop AI for the good of humanity, not corporate

profit.

OpenAI and Altman have denied the allegations, while Altman

alleges that Musk has been trying to slow down a competitor.

At stake in the lawsuit is the ChatGPT maker's transition to a

for-profit model, which the startup says is crucial to raising

more capital and competing well in the expensive AI race.

OpenAI is under pressure to transition quickly. The company is

currently raising a funding round of up to $40 billion led by

Japanese tech investment group SoftBank. SoftBank said it has

agreed to fund OpenAI with $10 billion in mid-April and an

additional $30 billion in December, contingent on the firm's

transitioning to a for-profit by the end of the year.

Altman, who has said OpenAI is not for sale, rejected a $97.4

billion unsolicited takeover bid earlier this year from

a Musk-led consortium with a "no thank you."