Tech rally loses steam, Sam Altman to take stand in OpenAI v. Musk trial

The rally in tech stocks looked poised to take a breather on Tuesday after chip stocks helped propel the major stock market indexes to all-time highs on Monday.

UAE-based AI chipmaker Cerebras is expected to make a splashy public debut. The company filed paperwork Monday increasing its initial public offering to 30 million shares with the goal of raising up to $4.8 billion, Bloomberg reported. The startup counts Amazon (AMZN) and OpenAI (OPAI.PVT) among its customers, and its inital public offering is likely to be the biggest IPO of 2026 so far.

In other tech news, Tesla (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk and Apple CEO Tim Cook were invited to join the US delegation to Beijing, Bloomberg reported. President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are scheduled to meet later this week to discuss trade, the war in Iran, powerful AI models, and more.

Meanwhile, the Elon Musk versus OpenAI (OPAI.PVT) trial has entered its third week. Microsoft (MSFT) CEO Satya Nadella took the stand on Monday, outlining Microsoft’s relationship with the AI startup, and noted that he was never given clarity about why CEO Sam Altman was fired from the company in November 2023.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman will take the witness stand on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Musk’s lawsuit against one of the world’s most valuable private companies has provided a number of details about the inner workings of OpenAI and the relationships between Musk, his fellow co-founders, Altman, and president Greg Brockman, former chief technology officer Mira Murati, and former board member, and mother of four of Musk’s children, Shivon Zilis.

LIVE 9 updates

  • OpenAI chief Altman to take stand in OpenAI-Musk trial on Tuesday

    Reuters reports:

    OpenAI (OPAI.PVT) Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman will take the witness stand on Tuesday and Wednesday, the California court said, ‌in a clash of tech titans over Elon Musk’s lawsuit against ‌the company.

    The trial, in its third week, may determine the future of OpenAI and its leadership, ​at a time when the company has raised hundreds of billions of dollars from large tech companies and investors, seeking to build out its computing power ahead of a potential trillion-dollar IPO.

    Musk’s lawsuit alleges Altman and the AI startup persuaded ‌him into giving $38 million to ⁠nonprofit OpenAI, only for the organization to abandon its charitable mission to benefit humanity and instead become a for-profit corporation. ⁠OpenAI says Musk knew about the for-profit plan but wanted control.

    The faceoff has generated interest throughout Silicon Valley and beyond, with testimony at times focusing on the ​personalities and ​leadership styles of the two men. Former ​OpenAI chief scientist Ilya Sutskever ‌testified on Monday that he spent about a year gathering evidence for the ChatGPT maker’s board that Altman had displayed a “consistent pattern of lying,” for instance.

    Read more here.

    OpenAI CEO Sam Altman (R) and Greg Brockman, OpenAI president and co-founder, arrive at the federal courthouse during proceedings in the trial over his lawsuit against OpenAI in Oakland, California, on April 30, 2026. Billionaire Elon Musk took the stand April 28 to accuse OpenAI and its boss Sam Altman of betraying the AI company's altruistic origins, in a trial that could have far-reaching consequences for the industry and oblige the ChatGPT maker to profoundly revamp its business. The legal clash across the bay from San Francisco is widely seen as a battle of egos pitting the world's richest person against a startup Musk once backed and now trails in the booming AI sector. (Photo by JOSH EDELSON / AFP via Getty Images)
    OpenAI CEO Sam Altman (R) and Greg Brockman, OpenAI president and co-founder, arrive at the federal courthouse during proceedings in the trial over his lawsuit against OpenAI in Oakland, California, on April 30, 2026. (JOSH EDELSON / AFP via Getty Images) · JOSH EDELSON via Getty Images
  • China’s tech comeback faces a test as Trump-Xi meeting looms: Chart of the Day

    Yahoo Finance’s Jared Blikre reports:

    Chinese tech stocks have rallied back to a key level, just as the headlines are heating up.

    The Invesco China Technology ETF (CQQQ) is pressing into a long-term downward-sloping trend line that starts at its February 2021 peak and captures both the 2025 and 2026 highs.

    The ETF is still down nearly 50% from that peak, but a break above the yellow trend line in the chart below would likely generate momentum for the bulls. Still, another technical hurdle looms just overhead: the $60 level around the 2025 high. A rally above that zone could force bearish bets to unwind, potentially leading to a short squeeze.

    Invesco China Technology ETF (CQQQ) at a crossroad
    Invesco China Technology ETF (CQQQ) at a crossroad · Yahoo Finance

    If the Invesco China Technology ETF rolls over instead, it has minor support near $50 and a slightly deeper support zone around $45.

    Trump is set to visit China from Wednesday through Friday, with high-stakes talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping expected to focus on trade, AI, chips, and rare earths. China’s 15th Five-Year Plan also gives the setup a policy tailwind, with Beijing prioritizing tech self-sufficiency, AI, robotics, and advanced manufacturing as core growth drivers.

    Read more here.

  • Daniel Howley

    Microsoft’s Satya Nadella was never given ‘clarity’ about why OpenAI’s board fired Sam Altman

    Microsoft (MSFT) CEO Satya Nadella took the stand in US District Court in Oakland, Calif., on Monday as part of Elon Musk’s ongoing lawsuit against OpenAI (OPAI.PVT).

    Nadella testified about his relationship with Musk, Microsoft’s work with OpenAI, and questions about how the companies’ tie-up has benefited Microsoft.

    Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella enters a U.S. federal courthouse as the trial in Elon Musk's lawsuit over OpenAI's for-profit conversion continues, in Oakland, California, U.S., May 11, 2026. REUTERS/Manuel Orbegozo
    Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella enters a U.S. federal courthouse as the trial in Elon Musk’s lawsuit over OpenAI’s for-profit conversion continues, in Oakland, California, U.S., May 11, 2026. REUTERS/Manuel Orbegozo · REUTERS / REUTERS

    The CEO also responded to questions about OpenAI’s brief ouster of CEO Sam Altman in November 2023.

    Microsoft has been one of OpenAI’s largest backers, investing billions of dollars in the company in exchange for using its technology across Microsoft’s products.

    During his testimony, Nadella said that, despite asking for a reason for OpenAI’s firing of Altman, he was never given a full explanation for the move. The CEO also said he wasn’t made aware of the decision to terminate Altman in advance, but was instead pulled out of a meeting and informed of the move.

    Read more here.

  • Pras Subramanian

    Rocket Lab stock jumps for second day as SpaceX IPO looms

    Rocket Lab (RKLB) stock extended its surge for a second consecutive trading day on Monday, as investors continue buying following the company’s strong quarterly report – and with a SpaceX (SPAX.PVT) IPO on the horizon.

    Rocket Lab shares rocketed 30% on Friday on the back of strong first quarter results released after the close on May 7th. Monday’s session carried that momentum forward, with shares jumping another 12%, hitting a new all-time high.

    With today’s move, Rocket Lab is up an eye-popping 70% year to date.

    Q1 results came along the backdrop of a flurry of new deals. CEO Peter Beck said Rocket Lab booked 31 Electron and HASTE rocket missions during the quarter — the most ever signed in a single quarter — and the company now has more than 70 launches in backlog across those programs.

    Read more here.

  • Daniel Howley

    Intel CEO touts ‘exciting new products’ with Nvidia

    Intel (INTC) stock rose on Monday, a day after CEO Lip-Bu Tan posted on X that the company and Nvidia (NVDA) are working to “develop exciting new products.”

    Tan initially wrote the post to congratulate Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang on receiving an honorary doctoral degree in science and technology from Carnegie Mellon University on Sunday. Tan draped the doctoral hood over Huang.

    Intel stock was up more than 2% in early trading. The chipmaker’s stock price has rocketed more than 245% year to date and 494% over the last 12 months.

    In September, the company and Nvidia announced they are collaborating on products for data centers, including the ability to connect Nvidia’s GPUs to Intel’s CPUs for AI workloads.

    The companies are also teaming up to produce Intel chips for consumer PCs that integrate Nvidia’s RTX GPU chiplets into Intel’s system-on-a-chip.

    Read more here.

  • Nvidia hits all-time intraday high

    Nvidia (NVDA) stock jumped 2.8% on Monday, hitting an all-time high as chip stocks resumed their rally from Friday.

    The world’s largest company had a market cap of $5.3 trillion. On Monday, Reuters reported that Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang ​is not joining President Trump’s trip ‌to China this week.

    Several other chip stocks — Micron Technology (MU), Intel (INTC), and Qualcomm (QCOM) — opened at record highs this morning. Semiconductor names have been riding a momentum wave in recent sessions, as memory chips prove to be the latest catalyst in the artificial intelligence boom.

  • AI communication with China in focus as Trump heads to Beijing

    When President Trump meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping this week in China, artificial intelligence will be a key agenda item.

    My colleague Ben Werschkul reports:

    Another key question: whether the US and China use this trip to launch official talks on AI guardrails, as the Wall Street Journal recently reported, amid fears that AI could become an arms race in the digital era.

    A top US technology official recently accused China of “industrial-scale distillation campaigns to steal American AI.” Trump officials reiterated over the weekend that this is an active area of concern, but it remains far from certain what the trip will yield.

    The US official said AI would likely be a topic of discussion but that China’s record on cybersecurity broken promises means there’s “not a lot of confidence in anything that would be unenforceable and unverifiable.”

    But any progress in this area, even the prosaic establishment of more formal communication channels, could be a significant development, the Brookings Institution recently noted.

    “The United States and China hardly talk about AI, at least at the official level,” the analysis noted, calling any new communication channels “a crucial first step toward addressing an increasingly high-stakes issue.”

    Read more here.

  • Cerebras to raise IPO price range to $150-$160 as demand surges, sources say​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

    United Arab Emirates-based artificial intelligence chipmaker Cerebras Systems is set to raise the size and price of its initial public offering amid hot demand for shares of the AI company, according to Reuters.

    Reuters reports:

    The ‌company is considering a new IPO price range of $150-$160 a share, up from $115-$125 a share, and raising the number of shares ​marketed to 30 million from 28 million, said the sources, who asked not to be identified because the information isn’t public yet.

    At the top of the new range, Cerebras would raise roughly $4.8 billion, up from $3.5 billion under its original terms, though the figures remain subject to change before pricing, the people said.

    The increase follows a broader ‌surge in AI adoption that has ⁠driven sharp demand for high-performance chips and turned semiconductors into a key bottleneck in the technology supply chain. Cerebras’ IPO has drawn orders for more than 20 ⁠times the number of shares available, the people said, as the chipmaker looks to manage surging interest ahead of its May 13 pricing.

    Read more here.

  • Everything you need to know from the first 2 weeks of the Musk v. OpenAI trial

    The trial between Tesla (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk and OpenAI (OPAI.PVT) picks back up on Monday.

    Musk is seeking damages and a reversal of OpenAI’s transition to a for-profit.

    He contends that OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman and president Greg Brockman duped him into donating millions of dollars to get the company off the ground with the understanding that it would remain a nonprofit. OpenAI, however, says Musk is angry that the company rejected his offer to merge it with Tesla (TSLA) and name him CEO of the new entity.

    OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA - APRIL 30: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman arrives to court at the Ronald V. Dellums Federal Building on April 30, 2026 in Oakland, California. Elon Musk invested in OpenAI early on believing it would be a non-profit, but is now suing OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman for allegedly deceiving him by developing OpenAI into a for-profit company. (Photo by Benjamin Fanjoy/Getty Images)
    OpenAI CEO Sam Altman arrives at the Ronald V. Dellums Federal Building on April 30, 2026, in Oakland, Calif. (Benjamin Fanjoy/Getty Images) · Benjamin Fanjoy via Getty Images

    Yahoo Finance’s Daniel Howley recaps the biggest moments so far in the trial:

    OpenAI filed court documents claiming that Musk tried to gauge Brockman’s interest in a settlement before the start of the trial. When Brockman suggested both sides drop their claims against each other, Musk allegedly told Brockman he would turn him and Altman into “the most hated men in America.”

    The case will decide the future of OpenAI and whether it will continue to operate as a for-profit entity or revert to a nonprofit structure.

    During his testimony this week, Brockman claimed Musk wanted to become CEO of OpenAI because he needed $80 billion to build a city on Mars.

    Brockman also disclosed that he holds a roughly $30 billion stake in the AI company, as well as holdings in other Altman-backed companies.

    Read more here.

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