Microsoft Corporation [NASDAQ: MSFT] targeted a $92 billion return from its early investment in OpenAI, according to internal planning documents disclosed in federal court on May 11, 2026, as part of Elon Musk’s high-profile lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft.

The figure was contained in a January 2023 memo from Microsoft President Brad Smith to the company’s board, projecting a $92 billion return on Microsoft’s cumulative $13 billion investment in the AI company, and was presented to the jury by Musk’s legal team during testimony by Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.

Nadella appeared as the first witness called by Musk’s attorneys in week three of the trial, which is being heard before US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers at the federal courthouse in Oakland, California, and testified for approximately two and a half hours.

Nadella confirmed the figures in the document but emphasised the genuine risk involved, telling the jury: “It has worked out well because we took the risk,” and noting that the return could just as easily have been zero.

A footnote in the Brad Smith memo showed a 20% annual increase in projected returns kicking in from 2025, which analysts noted could roughly double the projected return within four years, suggesting Microsoft’s internal team anticipated a long-term compounding effect from the AI partnership.

Microsoft’s investment in OpenAI began with a $1 billion commitment in January 2019, was doubled in 2021, and then significantly expanded with an additional $10 billion infusion in early 2023, bringing total committed capital to approximately $13 billion across the three rounds.

Since those investments, OpenAI’s valuation has risen sharply, with Bloomberg reporting the company was valued at approximately $852 billion as of late March 2026, while Microsoft’s holdings tied to those commitments are now valued at close to $228 billion.

An internal email from Nadella was also introduced as evidence, in which he wrote that he did not want Microsoft to become the next IBM while OpenAI became the next Microsoft, a line that reportedly shaped his decision-making as he navigated the partnership’s early stages.

Nadella also addressed his role in the brief removal and subsequent reinstatement of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman in November 2023, a dramatic episode that drew intense public scrutiny and ultimately ended with Altman returning to the company within days.

Musk’s lawsuit, filed against OpenAI, co-founders Sam Altman and Greg Brockman, and Microsoft, alleges that OpenAI has abandoned its original mission as a nonprofit dedicated to developing AI for the benefit of humanity, and instead transformed into a profit-driven enterprise in ways that benefited Microsoft disproportionately.

Microsoft and OpenAI have denied the central claims in Musk’s lawsuit, and the case is expected to continue through several more weeks of testimony before a verdict is reached.