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California: Elon Musk, the Tesla CEO, world\u2019s richest man and OpenAI cofounder, took the stand on Tuesday (US time) in a high-stakes trial revolving around a bitter feud between himself and former friends Sam Altman and Greg Brockman that could reshape the future development of artificial intelligence<\/a>.<\/p>\n The bickering billionaires\u2019 appearances at the Oakland federal courthouse foreshadows the start of a legal drama that is expected to brim with intrigue and potentially embarrassing details<\/a> about the two tech moguls. Musk filed the lawsuit against Altman and Brockman along with Microsoft over its investments in OpenAI, in 2024.<\/p>\n In the civil lawsuit, Musk, the world\u2019s richest person with an estimated fortune of $US778 billion ($1.08 trillion), accuses Altman and Brockman of double-crossing him by straying from the San Francisco company\u2019s founding mission to be a steward of a revolutionary technology. He is seeking damages and to fund the altruistic efforts of OpenAI\u2019s charitable arm and Altman\u2019s ouster from OpenAI\u2019s board.<\/p>\n \u201cFundamentally, I think they\u2019re going to try to make this lawsuit…very complicated, but it\u2019s actually very simple,\u201d Musk said. \u201cWhich is that it\u2019s not OK to steal a charity.\u201d<\/p>\n Musk was the first to testify, with his lawyer starting off asking about his life story. This included details about his move, at 17, from South Africa to Canada where for a time Musk said he worked as a lumberjack among other odd jobs, then to the US. He recounted the slew of companies he founded and runs, including SpaceX, Tesla, The Boring Company, Neuralink and others.<\/p>\n Related Article Asked how he has time for everything, Musk said he works 80 to 100 hours a week, doesn\u2019t take vacations and owns no vacation homes or yachts.<\/p>\n Musk, who co-founded automaker Tesla and rocket company SpaceX, testified that he conceived of OpenAI while having conversations with Google co-founder Larry Page, who Musk said \u201cwas not being sufficiently caring about the safety of AI.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI said: What if AI wipes out humans? He said that would be fine as long as artificial intelligence survives. I said that\u2019s insane,\u201d Musk said. \u201cThen he called me a species-ist for caring about humans more than AI.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI thought this was nuts and that we had to have some kind of counterpoint to Google,\u201d Musk said.<\/p>\n Musk\u2019s attorney, Steven Molo also asked Musk about his views on AI. Musk said he expects AI to be \u201csmarter than any human\u201d as soon as next year.<\/p>\n The kinship between Musk and Altman was forged in 2015 when they agreed to build AI in a more responsible and safer way than the profit-driven companies controlled by Google\u2019s Page and Sergey Brin and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, according to evidence submitted ahead of the trial.<\/p>\n The jury was elected Monday and the trial is scheduled to take three weeks.<\/p>\n OpenAI has brushed off Musk\u2019s allegations as an unfounded case of sour grapes that\u2019s aimed at undercutting its rapid growth and bolstering Musk\u2019s own xAI, which he launched in 2023 as a competitor.<\/p>\n In his opening statement, OpenAI lawyer William Savitt told jurors \u201cwe are here because Mr. Musk didn\u2019t get his way with OpenAI.\u201d<\/p>\n Savitt said Musk wanted \u201cthe keys to the kingdom,\u201d and sued only after he failed and then in 2023 started his own AI business, xAI, now part of SpaceX.<\/p>\n Savitt said Musk used his promises to provide funding to bully OpenAI founding members and tried to take control of OpenAI and merge it with Tesla. In fact, he said Musk wanted to form a for-profit company and own more than 50 per cent of it. In the middle of discussions about OpenAI\u2019s future, he added, Musk pulled the plug on $US5 million quarterly donations he was making.<\/p>\n There is no record, Savitt said, of promises made to Musk that OpenAI was going to remain a nonprofit forever, or open-source everything. What Musk ultimately cared about, he said, was not OpenAI\u2019s nonprofit status but winning the AI race with Google.<\/p>\n Molo said the case is not about Musk, but rather Altman, Brockman and Microsoft.<\/p>\n By 2017, about two years after OpenAI\u2019s founding, it became clear that OpenAI would need more money, and Molo said the founders eventually settled on the idea of creating a for-profit arm of OpenAI that would support the nonprofit. Terms were capped for investors so they \u201ccouldn\u2019t make infinite profit.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018Fundamentally, I think they\u2019re going to try to make this lawsuit…very complicated, but it\u2019s actually very simple. Which is that it\u2019s not OK to steal a charity.\u2019<\/p>\n Elon Musk<\/p>\n \u201cThere is nothing wrong with a nonprofit having a for-profit subsidiary, but (it) has to advance the mission,\u201d Molo said.<\/p>\n Microsoft initially invested $US2 billion in OpenAI. Then, in 2022, news spread that OpenAI had done a deal with Microsoft and \u201cthis was a horse of a completely different colour,\u201d he said. It was a \u201cgamechanger,\u201d Molo said, that violated \u201cevery commitment\u201d OpenAI made not just to Musk but to the world. It was no longer open source, it became a for-profit company for the benefit of the defendants and Microsoft was going to have control, through licensing, of much of its intellectual property, Molo said.<\/p>\n Musk\u2019s side is expected to present a tale chock-full of alleged betrayal, deceit and ambition that caused OpenAI to pivot from its founding mission as an altruistic startup to a capitalistic venture now valued at $US852 billion.<\/p>\n Altman, OpenAI\u2019s CEO, is also expected to testify, along with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, one of the technology leaders who helped fund the late 2022 release of ChatGPT, the chatbot that unleashed the current AI boom that has propelled the stock market to record heights.<\/p>\n![\"Elon](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/9c68f6dcddbca76c13dc4f9a888adb85735f0866.jpeg\")
Elon Musk arrives at the federal courthouse in Oakland, California. AP<\/p>\n![\"Elon](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1777415170_271_4c1f88e23d373c99225176707221b778316c7133.jpeg\")
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Sam Altman inside the courthouse on Tuesday. Bloomberg<\/p>\n
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