Elon Musk took the stand Monday in his lawsuit against OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and company president Greg Brockman, moving a long-running legal dispute from court filings into live testimony for the first time.
Musk invested up to $38 million in OpenAI during its early years and was part of the founding team alongside Altman and Brockman. His lawsuit claims that OpenAI broke a founding promise to operate as a nonprofit focused on public benefit, and that its deepening commercial relationship with Microsoft - including a reported $13 billion investment - represents a fundamental betrayal of that agreement. Musk's relationship with the other co-founders deteriorated over disagreements about company structure and whether OpenAI should remain a nonprofit or pursue outside capital.
OpenAI's position is that commercial funding is required to compete with well-resourced rivals and that the mission - developing safe AI - has not changed. The company has also filed countersuits alleging Musk is trying to damage a competitor, pointing to his own AI venture, xAI, which competes directly with ChatGPT.
What's Actually at Stake
Beyond the personal conflict, the trial raises a genuinely consequential legal question: can an organization founded and funded as a nonprofit restructure into a for-profit entity without the consent of early donors? If the court sides with Musk, it could complicate how other AI organizations manage similar transitions. If OpenAI prevails, it establishes that mission drift - even dramatic drift - is largely an internal governance matter with limited legal remedy for outside funders.
OpenAI is currently pursuing a full conversion to a for-profit public benefit corporation, a process this trial could directly affect. According to The Verge's coverage, Musk's testimony marks the beginning of what is expected to be a complex and extended proceeding.