Musk and Altman take their battle from court to Wall Street ahead of landmark IPOs

Elon Musk arrives to court at the Ronald V. Dellums Federal Building on April 30, 2026 in Oakland, California. Benjamin Fanjoy | Elon Musk lost his lawsuit against OpenAI CEO Sam Altman on Monday, ending one round in the fight between the former friends and co-founders, and setting the stage for an even bigger battle as the billionaires gear up to lead potentially record-setting IPOs. Musk's SpaceX, which was valued at $1.25 trillion in February after merging with artificial intelligence startup xAI, is planning to disclose its prospectus as soon as this week . Altman's OpenAI, which Musk helped start in 2015 before a contentious split that led to the eventual lawsuit, is valued at more than $850 billion and is eyeing a possible market debut later this year. Only two tech companies — Facebook and Alibaba — have been valued at even $100 billion after their first day of trading on U.S. exchanges. "The big picture is the theater is now done," Gene Munster, managing partner at Deepwater Asset Management, told CNBC's Kelly Evans on Monday. "Now we get to the substance of seeing what these companies can do to really build massive businesses around AI." Both SpaceX and OpenAI have complicated stories to tell, and for investors to buy in at such elevated prices, they have to be confident in top leadership. That's particularly true when it involves polarizing figures like Musk, the world's richest person, and Altman, who was briefly ousted by his own board less than three years ago. …