Elon Musk testifies in high-stakes OpenAI trial

The courtroom drama reached a pivotal moment as Elon Musk took the stand in his high-stakes legal battle against OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and company president Greg Brockman. The trial marks the latest escalation in a years-long feud between the tech titans, who were once co-founders of the same nonprofit AI venture.

Musk was an early and crucial backer of OpenAI, contributing up to $38 million during its formative years. But the relationship fractured over fundamental disagreements about the company’s structure and mission, including a proposal to integrate OpenAI into Musk’s own Tesla. After walking away, Musk later founded xAI, a direct competitor to OpenAI that is now housed under his SpaceX umbrella.

This trial is the fourth legal action Musk has filed against OpenAI in recent years, with previous cases being dismissed or dropped. This time, however, the lawsuit has survived to a jury trial in a California federal court. The complaint names Altman, Brockman, Microsoft, and OpenAI itself as defendants. The proceedings are expected to feature testimony from prominent AI figures, including Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Microsoft CTO Kevin Scott, and former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati, who now leads her own AI startup, Thinking Machines Lab.

At the heart of Musk’s case is the allegation that OpenAI violated its founding mission to develop artificial general intelligence (AGI) for the benefit of all humanity. The lawsuit also raises claims of fraud, unjust enrichment, and a breach of OpenAI’s charitable trust. Musk is demanding that the court “strip Sam Altman and Greg Brockman of their positions of authority and the personal financial benefits they extracted from OpenAI’s illicit for-profit operations and conversion.” He is also pushing to unwind OpenAI’s for-profit restructuring, among other remedies.