Three days into the Musk v. Altman trial, OpenAI's lawyers took their turn at cross-examination. According to Wired's coverage of the proceedings, Musk acknowledged the tension directly, saying "they're gonna want to kill me" - a comment directed at OpenAI's legal team.
The lawsuit centers on Musk's claim that OpenAI has abandoned its founding nonprofit mission by converting to a for-profit structure. Musk co-founded OpenAI in 2015, donated around $45 million to it, and departed from the board in 2018 before building xAI, which now competes directly with ChatGPT and OpenAI's other products. OpenAI has argued consistently that the lawsuit is competitive interference dressed up as principled objection.
Cross-examination is where Musk's account gets pressure-tested. His own lawyers shaped the narrative during direct testimony; now OpenAI's team gets to probe the gaps between his stated mission concerns and his business interests. A founder who left the organization, built a rival, and then filed suit to constrain his former company's commercial growth has an inherently complicated story to tell under oath.
The structural stakes are real for the broader AI industry. If Musk prevails, OpenAI could face limits on its transition to a capped-profit company - the model it needs to raise capital competitive with what Google and Meta can deploy internally. A ruling for OpenAI would effectively establish that a nonprofit AI lab can commercially pivot without being bound by its founding charter.
Testimony is ongoing.