OAKLAND, Calif. — Tesla chief executive Elon Musk testified in a federal court Tuesday in the trial for his lawsuit brought against ChatGPT-maker OpenAI, a court battle that could upend the company that kicked off the AI arms race.
“Fundamentally I think they’re going to try to make this lawsuit seem complicated, but I think it’s very simple, which is, it’s not okay to steal a charity,” Musk said in his testimony Tuesday at a federal court.
Musk helped found OpenAI as a nonprofit in 2015, along with the company’s current CEO Sam Altman and its president Greg Brockman. He left the organization in 2018 after a split with the two men and is now accusing Altman and Brockman of betraying OpenAI’s original nonprofit charter to enrich themselves.
At its founding, Musk and his co-founders said OpenAI would develop powerful AI technology to benefit all of humanity. Since then it has raised $186 billion in funding from outside investors, according to research firm PitchBook, and launched a commercial operation that through ChatGPT is one of the most influential companies in Silicon Valley. Last month, OpenAI said it had raised $122 billion in new funding and was valued by investors at $852 billion. (The Washington Post has a content partnership with OpenAI.)
Musk’s lawsuit, originally filed in 2024, asks the court to remove Altman and Brockman from their leadership positions and to restore OpenAI to a full nonprofit.
OpenAI has said Musk is trying to undercut a competitor to his own AI venture, xAI. “Motivated by jealousy, regret for walking away from OpenAI and a desire to derail a competing AI company, Elon has spent years harassing OpenAI through baseless lawsuits and public attacks,” OpenAI wrote on a website it created with commentary on the case.
Musk was the first witness called by his lawyers, kicking off what is expected to be a three-week trial that will likely see a series of other tech titans take the stand, including Altman, Brockman and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. Legal filings in the case have revealed unflattering private text messages and emails between some of the industry’s most powerful figures.
Dozens of journalists and members of the public lined up outside the court early in the morning to get a seat inside. A handful of protesters gathered outside, with one wearing a T-shirt that read “Stop AI.” Musk, Altman and Brockman entered through a different entrance, but were required to pass through security as photographers snapped photos from outside.
The case revolves around what agreements and commitments the founders made to each other in the early months after OpenAI’s founding, and whether the firm’s later addition of a for-profit arm that is now worth hundreds of billions ran afoul of laws governing charitable organizations.
But the personalities and reputations of the characters involved have already come to the forefront. Before the jury filed in Tuesday morning, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California chastised Musk and Altman, who were both present, for posting about each other and the trial on social media Monday. She demanded both men refrain from posting more about the trial while it goes on. They agreed.
In his opening statement, Musk’s lawyer, Steve Molo, described the billionaire as a genius technologist who has founded several companies — including Tesla and SpaceX — that have created profound breakthroughs.
“I don’t have any yachts,” Musk said. “I like working and solving problems that make people’s lives better.”
Musk’s lawyer acknowledged the billionaire is a divisive figure but urged the jury to put aside any personal opinions they have of him. “Like him or dislike him you can’t disagrees that he is a legend in the tech world,” Molo said.
On the stand, Musk said he was the central figure who got OpenAI off the ground, providing funding, business expertise and convincing top AI researchers and engineers to join the nonprofit. He said Altman wasn’t a very accomplished figure yet when they began OpenAI.
“At that time very few people knew who Sam Altman was,” Musk said, claiming that his network with other tech leaders benefited OpenAI. “The only one who could call Satya Nadella and he would pick up the phone was me,” Musk said.
In 2019, Microsoft became the first major backer of OpenAI’s commercial ventures and is named as a defendant in Musk’s lawsuit against the company. The company had said in court filings that Microsoft’s investments in OpenAI “helped to fund one of the largest nonprofits in the world” and “was necessary for OpenAI to pursue its mission.”
OpenAI’s lead lawyer, Bill Savitt, sought to paint a different picture when he cross-examined Musk, arguing the billionaire wasn’t very involved in building OpenAI’s technology and didn’t have a good grasp on the cutting edge of AI.
“Musk hadn’t been much involved in the day-to-day of OpenAI,” Savitt said. “He didn’t understand artificial intelligence very well.”
When it became clear that OpenAI might become a more traditional company with conventional investors, Musk demanded an ownership stake that would give him control over the company and any technology that it might develop, Savitt said. He said Musk’s 2018 split from the project came after Brockman and Altman stood up to the billionaire.
Musk said he departed the project after Altman and Brockman suggested turning it into a for-profit company with the co-founders controlling equal shares. “I thought this seemed unfair and inappropriate and they should go and start their own company,” he said.
Savitt described the fracture differently: “Since he couldn’t control OpenAI, he left it.”
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