Elon Musk spent more than seven hours on the witness stand across three days last week in his federal lawsuit against OpenAI, which accuses CEO Sam Altman and President Greg Brockman of betraying the company's original nonprofit mission when they converted it into a for-profit venture.
Musk, who donated $38M of OpenAI's earliest funding before leaving the board in 2018 over a power struggle with Altman, is seeking $150B in damages and an order forcing OpenAI to unwind its for-profit conversion, as well as the removal of Altman and Brockman from their leadership positions.
During the trial, Musk's lead attorney Steven Molo argued that Altman and Brockman “stole a charity,” comparing today's OpenAI to “a museum store that has taken over the museum.” OpenAI's lead counsel William Savitt countered that Musk filed the lawsuit out of “sour grapes” because he didn't get his way at OpenAI, pointing out that Musk himself proposed taking OpenAI for-profit and folding it into Tesla in early discussions.
Here are some highlights from the trial so far:
- “It's not OK to steal a charity.” Musk repeated that throughout the trial, telling the jury that if he loses the case, “it will give license to looting every charity in America.”
- No written agreement. Musk acknowledged under cross-examination that he never had his representatives draft a contract laying out the conditions of his donation to OpenAI. His defense was, “I reviewed the corporate charter, which said it is a nonprofit.”
- AI doomsday talk banned from the trial. Judge Gonzalez Rogers ruled that the trial would not address whether AI could destroy humanity. “We are not going to get into issues of catastrophe and extinction,” she said, adding, “I suspect that there are a number of people who do not want to put the future of humanity in Mr. Musk's hands.”
- Musk admits xAI distilled OpenAI's models. When asked whether xAI used “distillation” techniques on OpenAI to train Grok, Musk said, “Generally A.I. companies distill other A.I. companies.” Asked if that meant yes, he said, “Partly.” Distillation is prohibited under OpenAI's terms of service.
- “I was a fool.” On day two, Musk said, “I was a fool who provided them free funding to create a start-up. I gave them $38 million of essentially free funding to create what would become an $800 billion company.”
- Microsoft “felt like a bribe.” Musk testified that when he raised concerns to Altman about Microsoft's $10B investment in 2022, Altman offered him an opportunity to buy stock in OpenAI, which Musk said “felt like a bribe.”
- The xAI hypocrisy. When asked why he didn't start a nonprofit if he believed nonprofits were the right structure, Musk replied, “I thought I had started a nonprofit with OpenAI but they stole it.”
- The Brockman “diary.” Musk's most damaging evidence comes from Brockman's personal notes. In a September 2017 entry, Brockman wrote, “This is the only chance we have to get out from Elon… Financially, what will take me to $1B?” After a November 2017 meeting where he and Altman assured Musk that OpenAI would remain a nonprofit, Brockman acknowledged in writing that Musk's “story will correctly be that we weren't honest with him in the end about still wanting to do the for-profit just without him.”
- The $97.4B failed bid. Musk's family office head Jared Birchall testified that Musk's February 2025 $97.4B bid for OpenAI's assets was designed to “prevent the diminishment of the value of the foundation” by setting a market value for it.
Why did Greg Brockman keep a diary with incriminating evidence about a case that he inevitably knew would one day make it to the courtroom? Does he talk about his work crush in the diary too?
The trial is expected to continue through late May with Altman, Brockman, and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella all on the witness list. The jury's verdict will be advisory with Judge Gonzalez Rogers issuing the final ruling. If Musk wins, OpenAI could be forced to unwind its for-profit conversion, which could jeopardize its planned IPO in 2026.