OAKLAND, California – OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman on May 12 rejected Elon Musk’s claim that he betrayed the ChatGPT maker’s founding mission to serve the public good, and said it was Mr Musk who was interested in seizing control of OpenAI and making money from it.
In an August 2024 lawsuit, Mr Musk accused Mr Altman and OpenAI of persuading him into giving US$38 million (S$48 million), only to see the nonprofit abandon its mission to benefit humanity and instead become a for-profit corporation.
The trial, now in its third week, may determine the future of OpenAI and its leadership, as it prepares for a possible initial public offering that could value the business at US$1 trillion.
Testifying in the Oakland, California, federal court, Mr Altman denied Mr Musk’s contention that he and OpenAI president Greg Brockman, who is also a defendant, tried to “steal a charity.”
Mr Altman said “it feels difficult to even wrap my head around that framing,” and that he hoped that “as OpenAI continues to do well, the nonprofit will do even better.”
Mr Musk, the world’s richest person, is seeking about US$150 billion in damages from OpenAI and Microsoft, a major investor, to be paid to an OpenAI nonprofit.
He testified early in the trial, saying: “If you have someone who is not trustworthy in charge of AI, I think that’s a very big danger for the whole world.”
Mr Musk also wants Mr Altman and Mr Brockman removed from their roles.
OpenAI was co-founded in 2015 by several entrepreneurs, including Mr Musk and Mr Altman. It has tried to show that Mr Musk knew about the for-profit plan prior to leaving its board in 2018, but wanted control of the company, and is suing now because he regrets missing out on potential riches.
OpenAI created a for-profit entity in March 2019.
Asked whether Mr Musk opposed the for-profit plan, Mr Altman said “quite the opposite.” He recalled Mr Musk once demanding a 90 per cent stake in OpenAI, and despite later softening his stance always sought majority control, an idea Mr Altman was “extremely uncomfortable” with.
“I had quite a lot of experience with startups, had seen a lot of control fights,” he said, citing Mr Musk’s SpaceX as an example where founders of well-performing companies consolidated power to ensure permanent control.
Mr Altman also said that while he and other OpenAI leaders wanted to stay on Mr Musk’s good side, he baulked at a merger with Tesla, Mr Musk’s electric car company.
“I don’t think we would have had the ability to ensure that (our) mission was acted on,” he said. “Fundamentally, Tesla needs to serve its customers and sell cars.”
The trial marks a clash among tech giants, with Mr Musk portraying himself as a defender of ordinary people from the perils of AI and Silicon Valley titans who care more about money. It came after OpenAI raised hundreds of billions of dollars from large technology companies and investors to build its computing power, ahead of a potential IPO.
Mr Altman said Mr Musk’s departure sparked mixed feelings within OpenAI. He said some worried it might make funding more difficult, while others were relieved to be freed of Mr Musk’s insistence that researchers regularly defend their work and progress.
“I don’t think Mr Musk understood how to run a good research lab,” Mr Altman said. “He had demotivated some of our most key researchers.”
Mr Bret Taylor, chairman of OpenAI, testified on May 12 that OpenAI received a formal takeover offer from a consortium led by Mr Musk’s rival company xAI in February 2025, six months after Mr Musk sued.
“I was surprised,” Mr Taylor said. “This proposal was to acquire this non-profit by a group of for-profit investors, which felt contradictory to the spirit of the lawsuit.”
Testimony in the trial before US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers may conclude this week.
Jurors could begin deliberating whether the defendants are liable by May 18. Judge Rogers would determine any remedies.
Former OpenAI chief scientist Ilya Sutskever testified on May 11 that he spent about a year gathering evidence for OpenAI directors that Mr Altman had displayed a “consistent pattern of lying.”
Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella, whose company is a major OpenAI investor, testified on May 11 that the investment was a “calculated risk.”
Others who have testified include Mr Brockman, former OpenAI technology chief Mira Murati, and Ms Shivon Zilis, a former OpenAI board member who is also mother to four of Mr Musk’s children. REUTERS
