Elon Musk returns to Texas after skipping OpenAI trial closing for Beijing

Elon Musk flew N628TS, his Gulfstream G650ER, from Boeing Field in Seattle to Draughon Miller Central Texas Regional Airport on the evening of May 17, a three-hour, 21-minute hop that returned him to the vicinity of his SpaceX-rented home near Starbase. The flight caps a week of coast-hopping that began May 14, when he left Shanghai for Seattle after accompanying President Donald Trump on a state visit to Beijing, per CNBC and NBC News.

Musk was not in the Oakland courtroom for closing arguments in Musk v. Altman on May 14. His lead counsel apologized to the jury for his absence, explaining that Musk was on Trump’s delegation in China, as The Independent reported. The nine-person jury began deliberations on May 18, Musk was back in Texas, hundreds of miles from the federal courthouse where his $134 billion claim against OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Greg Brockman is being decided. The trial, which Musk himself testified in during its first week, turns on whether OpenAI’s conversion to a for-profit structure breached the charitable trust under which he made early donations, per The Next Web.

The trip pattern — Seattle to Los Angeles, then to Killeen — mirrors his frequent stops between the Pacific Northwest and his Texas base. Musk has not bought a home in the Austin area, per his previously stated pledge, and stays in company-provided housing near the SpaceX launch site.