Elon Musk took the stand at his trial against OpenAI on Tuesday, April 28, repeating claims about the organization's founding that he has made before in interviews and in Walter Isaacson's 2023 biography - but this time under oath.
The lawsuit centers on whether OpenAI violated its original nonprofit mission by converting to a for-profit structure. Musk argues he co-founded the organization in 2015 with Sam Altman and others on the explicit understanding it would remain a public benefit entity, not a commercial operation. He says he donated roughly $44 million before leaving the board in 2018. Tuesday's courtroom testimony carries legal weight that interviews and biography excerpts do not - sworn statements can be used against Musk directly if they contradict prior public claims.
Altman's counter-argument is straightforward: building competitive AI required capital that a nonprofit structure could not attract. That position has been validated, at least financially. ChatGPT's parent company has raised over $50 billion in external investment, including a $40 billion round that closed in early 2025. Musk's own AI company, xAI, launched its Grok assistant after he departed OpenAI, giving him a direct commercial interest in OpenAI's competitive standing beyond the legal dispute.
The case has broader implications for the AI industry. Several early AI labs structured themselves as nonprofits or hybrid organizations to signal public benefit intentions, then later sought commercial investment. How courts rule on whether OpenAI's transition was permissible will influence how future organizations write their founding documents - and what promises founders can and cannot make to early backers.