Musk Takes Stand in OpenAI Legal Battle

Musk Testifies in OpenAI Lawsuit Elon Musk testified for over seven hours across three days this week in a trial in Oakland, California, concerning the future of OpenAI. Musk's lawsuit against OpenAI, its CEO Sam Altman, and President Greg Brockman, alleges a betrayal of the company's original mission as a benevolent steward of AI for humanity, following its conversion to a for-profit entity.

The proceedings, which concluded on May 1, 2026, focused on Musk's claims that OpenAI was initially established as a charity and that its current leadership reneged on this foundational promise.

Musk asserted that OpenAI's inception as a non-profit was a deliberate choice, contrasting it with the option of forming a for-profit venture. He claimed to have conceived the idea, named the organization, recruited key personnel, and provided initial funding. Musk specifically cited his role in recruiting researcher Ilya Sutskever from Google and leveraging his connections with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang to secure computing resources for OpenAI.

During his testimony, Musk also addressed AI safety concerns, stating that OpenAI's creation was partly motivated by a disagreement with Google co-founder Larry Page regarding the potential risks of artificial intelligence. He described an offer from Sam Altman to purchase stock in OpenAI as feeling like a "bribe" after Microsoft's substantial investment.

When questioned about using OpenAI to train his own xAI company despite his safety concerns, Musk stated it was standard practice to use other AIs for validation. He also noted that for-profit companies can still be socially beneficial.