In today's email:

• Musk vs. Altman: The Trial That Could Reshape OpenAI ⚖️

• OpenAI & Anthropic Both Launch Enterprise AI Joint Ventures — On the Same Day 🤝

• Anthropic Eyes $900 Billion Valuation, Could Overtake OpenAI 📈

• Tutorial: How to Automate Your Workflow with AI Agents Using n8n

• 📢 Top AI Tools of the Week

Musk vs. Altman: The Trial That Could Reshape OpenAI ⚖️

The most consequential trial in AI history kicked off last week in Oakland, California. Elon Musk is suing OpenAI, CEO Sam Altman, and President Greg Brockman — claiming they "stole a charity" and betrayed the company's original nonprofit mission. The outcome could literally remove Altman and Brockman from OpenAI's board and derail the company's path to a trillion-dollar IPO.

The lowdown:

• Musk's case: Musk testified over three days, arguing that he donated $38 million to what he believed was a nonprofit building AI for the benefit of humanity — not a for-profit company that would make executives rich. "I was a fool who provided them free funding to create a startup," he told the jury.

• OpenAI's defense: OpenAI's attorney William Savitt countered that Musk was "never committed to OpenAI being a nonprofit" and is only suing to undermine a competitor. OpenAI presented evidence that Musk himself had pushed for a for-profit structure and directed associates to register a corporation in OpenAI's name.

• Bombshell admission: Musk admitted in court — to audible gasps — that his own AI company xAI uses OpenAI's models to train its competing chatbot Grok, a practice known as "distillation."

• Settlement attempt revealed: A new court filing showed Musk texted Greg Brockman two days before the trial to "gauge interest in settlement." When Brockman suggested both sides drop their claims, Musk fired back: "By the end of this week, you and Sam will be the most hated men in America."

• What's at stake: The trial is split into two phases — a liability phase (expected to conclude by May 21) and a remedies phase. If Musk wins, the judge could remove Altman and Brockman from their roles and unwind OpenAI's for-profit restructuring. Brockman took the stand on Monday.

Why It Matters: This trial is happening at the worst possible time for OpenAI — right as it prepares for a potential Q4 2026 IPO at a $1 trillion valuation. A ruling in Musk's favor could throw OpenAI's corporate structure, investor relationships, and public offering plans into chaos. Meanwhile, Musk's own AI company xAI is expected to go public as part of SpaceX as early as June. The AI industry is watching this courtroom drama very closely.

OpenAI & Anthropic Both Launch Enterprise AI Joint Ventures — On the Same Day 🤝

In one of the most dramatic competitive moves in AI history, both OpenAI and Anthropic announced massive enterprise joint ventures within minutes of each other on Monday. The message is clear: the next phase of the AI race isn't about building better models — it's about getting AI embedded into every business on the planet.

Key Highlights:

• OpenAI's "The Deployment Company": OpenAI finalized a $10 billion joint venture backed by 19 investors including TPG, Brookfield, Bain Capital, Advent International, SoftBank, and Dragoneer. OpenAI is putting in up to $1.5 billion of its own capital and retaining majority control through super-voting shares. The PE partners collectively have access to over 2,000 portfolio companies.

• Guaranteed returns for investors: In an unusual move, OpenAI is guaranteeing PE backers a 17.5% annual return over five years — a structure more common in private equity than in tech ventures. This suggests OpenAI is highly confident in enterprise AI demand.

• Anthropic's counter-move: Within minutes of the OpenAI news breaking, Anthropic announced its own $1.5 billion enterprise joint venture with Blackstone, Goldman Sachs, and Hellman & Friedman. Additional backers include Apollo, General Atlantic, Sequoia Capital, and GIC. The venture will deploy Claude AI into midsize companies across industries.

• The Palantir playbook: Both ventures plan to embed engineers directly inside client organizations to integrate AI into core operations — a model pioneered by Palantir's "forward-deployed engineers." This is a fundamentally different approach from traditional SaaS sales.

Why It Matters: Both companies have realized that selling AI software one contract at a time is too slow. By partnering with private equity firms that control hundreds of companies, they're creating a distribution channel that can push AI adoption at scale. This race to embed AI into enterprise operations — healthcare, logistics, finance, manufacturing — will likely determine which company wins the enterprise AI market for the next decade. With both companies eyeing IPOs later this year, these ventures also serve as powerful proof points for public market investors.

Anthropic Eyes $900 Billion Valuation, Could Overtake OpenAI 📈

Just when you thought OpenAI's $852 billion valuation was untouchable, Anthropic is preparing to blow past it. The Claude maker has received multiple preemptive offers to raise approximately $50 billion at a valuation between $850 billion and $900 billion — which would make it the world's most valuable AI startup.

Key Highlights:

• Valuation rocket ship: Anthropic's valuation trajectory is staggering: $61.5 billion in March 2025, $183 billion in September, $380 billion in February 2026, and now potentially $900+ billion in May. No company in American tech history has scaled valuations this fast.

• Revenue explosion: Anthropic's annualized revenue run rate has surpassed $30 billion, tripling from approximately $9 billion at the end of 2025. Sources suggest the actual run rate may be closer to $40 billion. Enterprise customers represent about 80% of revenue, with over 1,000 businesses spending more than $1 million annually.

• Massive compute deals secured: Amazon committed up to $25 billion in investment and 5 gigawatts of compute capacity. Google pledged up to $40 billion and, together with Broadcom, will provide another 5 gigawatts of capacity. These infrastructure commitments are essential for training next-generation models.

• Last round before IPO: This is expected to be Anthropic's final private fundraise. The company is in early discussions with Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, and Morgan Stanley about an IPO as early as October 2026, potentially raising over $60 billion. Shares are already trading at an implied $1 trillion valuation on secondary markets.

Why It Matters: The AI valuation arms race has reached a level that was unimaginable even a year ago. With both OpenAI ($852B) and Anthropic (potentially $900B+) heading toward IPOs in the same year, 2026 is shaping up to be the most consequential year in tech capital markets since the dot-com era. For the broader AI industry, Anthropic's rise proves that the frontier AI market is not a winner-take-all game — Claude Code, Cowork, and enterprise deployments have carved out a massive and growing market alongside ChatGPT. The competition between these two companies is driving innovation faster than ever.Tutorial: How to Use Google Gemini Notebooks for AI-Powered Research 🎓

Tutorial: How to Build Your First AI-Powered Workflow with n8n 🛠️

AI agents are the hottest trend in 2026, and n8n is one of the best free, open-source tools to start automating your workflows without writing a single line of code. Here's how to build your first AI-powered automation in 5 steps:

Step 1: Install n8n Head to n8n.io and choose your setup — you can run it in the cloud (free trial available) or self-host it on your own machine with a simple Docker command: docker run -it --rm --name n8n -p 5678:5678 n8nio/n8n. Open your browser and go to localhost:5678 to access the visual workflow editor.

Step 2: Create a Trigger Every automation starts with a trigger — the event that kicks off the workflow. Click "Add first step" and choose a trigger like "On new email received" (Gmail), "On new message" (Slack), or "On form submission" (Webhook). For a simple start, try the "Manual Trigger" so you can test your workflow on demand.

Step 3: Add an AI Agent Node This is where the magic happens. Add an "AI Agent" node and connect it to your preferred AI model — OpenAI (GPT-5.4), Anthropic (Claude), or even a free open-source model via Ollama. Configure the system prompt to tell the agent what role it should play: e.g., "You are a customer support assistant. Summarize incoming emails and draft a polite response."

Step 4: Connect Output Actions Add output nodes that tell the workflow what to do with the AI's response. For example: send the draft reply back via Gmail, post a summary to a Slack channel, update a row in Google Sheets, or create a task in Notion. Chain multiple actions together for more complex workflows.

Step 5: Activate and Monitor Click "Activate" to make your workflow run automatically. Use n8n's execution log to monitor how each run performs and tweak your AI prompts if needed. Start simple, then expand — the best workflows evolve over time.

Pro Tip: Start with a workflow you repeat daily — like summarizing emails, categorizing support tickets, or pulling data from one app into another. Once you see how much time one automation saves, you'll want to build ten more.

📢Top AI Tools of the Week