{"id":425252,"date":"2026-04-30T13:56:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T13:56:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/425252\/"},"modified":"2026-04-30T13:56:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T13:56:12","slug":"elon-musk-tells-california-court-he-was-a-fool-to-fund-openai-launch-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/425252\/","title":{"rendered":"Elon Musk tells California court he was \u2018a fool\u2019 to fund OpenAI launch \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Elon Musk<\/a> accused a lawyer for OpenAI of repeatedly trying to trick him during a tense cross-examination at a trial that may \u200cdetermine the future of the artificial intelligence company that built ChatGPT.<\/p>\n

Musk\u2019s lawsuit alleges OpenAI ditched its mission to build artificial intelligence for the public good, and he is seeking billions of dollars and a change in management and direction for OpenAI, which says Musk \u200bknew exactly what was going on and was angry he was not made chief executive.<\/p>\n

William Savitt, a lawyer for OpenAI, told Musk his questions about the tax benefits of his $38 million in donations to OpenAI and the company\u2019s corporate structure were meant to be simple, and that Musk\u2019s responses should be as well. \u201cYour questions are not simple. They\u2019re designed to trick me,\u201d Musk, the chief executive of Tesla and SpaceX, told a nine-person jury in Oakland, California, federal court.<\/p>\n

The heated exchange came after Musk, over two days \u200bof questioning by his own lawyer, accused OpenAI, its co-founder and chief executive Sam Altman<\/a>, and its president Greg Brockman of promising to build a non-profit to develop AI responsibly, before pivoting to create a for-profit entity in 2019 to enrich themselves.<\/p>\n

OpenAI has argued that \u2060Musk, who helped finance the company\u2019s early growth, is driven by a compulsion to control it and bitterness over its success after he left the board in 2018. It has said \u200che \u200cis \u200bseeking to bolster his own AI company, SpaceX unit xAI, which lags OpenAI in user adoption.<\/p>\n

The company also contends Musk pushed OpenAI to become a for-profit business, wanted to become chief executive, and that safety was not a priority for him when he was with the company.<\/p>\n

Savitt asked Musk about an email he \u2060sent Altman in 2015 suggesting OpenAI be structured as a for-profit corporation with a parallel \u200bnon-profit, part of an effort to show Musk was supportive of a for-profit entity. Musk said the \u200bemails did not indicate his definitive position.<\/p>\n

\u201cDiscussions and brainstorming are not a deal,\u201d said Musk, wearing a dark suit over a white shirt and glancing at the jury occasionally as he spoke.<\/p>\n

Seated in the courtroom audience, \u200cAltman and Brockman \u2013 who took notes with a red-ink pen on a yellow \u200blegal pad \u2013 listened intently as the exchanges between Musk and Savitt grew increasingly heated.<\/p>\n

Musk repeatedly asked Savitt to stop interrupting him. Musk answered one of Savitt\u2019s questions by saying, \u201cYou tell me.\u201d Savitt responded, \u201cI get \u2060to ask the questions, Mr Musk.\u201d<\/p>\n

Musk is expected to return to the stand \u2060for more cross-examination on Thursday.<\/p>\n

The trial highlights the depth of the rupture between Musk and Altman. The pair co-founded OpenAI in 2015 to create a benevolent steward of the technology and fend off rivals such as Alphabet\u2019s Google. Musk testified he left OpenAI in 2018 to focus on Tesla and SpaceX.<\/p>\n

Microsoft, also a defendant, invested $10 billion in OpenAI in 2023, a deal Musk said fuelled his concerns that OpenAI was abandoning its mission.<\/p>\n

Jurors saw text messages Musk and Altman exchanged after news broke of Microsoft\u2019s potential investment. Musk told Altman the move felt like a \u201cbait and switch\u201d. Altman responded, \u201cI agree this feels bad.\u201d<\/p>\n

Earlier on Wednesday, jurors saw an email Musk sent to Altman and Brockman in 2017, referring to himself as a \u201cfool\u201d for providing them funding for what he believed was a non-profit venture.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat they really wanted to do was create a for-profit where they had as much shareholder ownership as possible,\u201d Musk said under questioning by his lawyer, \u200cSteven Molo.<\/p>\n

OpenAI has said it created a \u2060for-profit entity to allow it to accept private investments to help buy computing power and pay top scientists.<\/p>\n

On cross-examination, Savitt highlighted instances in which Altman appeared to keep Musk apprised of OpenAI\u2019s plans to create a for-profit entity and pursue investment from Microsoft.<\/p>\n

Savitt asked Musk if he had responded to an April 3rd, 2019, text message Altman sent him asking, \u201cDo you \u200chave a few mins to talk about the Microsoft\/openai investment?\u201d Musk said he did not recall if he responded.<\/p>\n

OpenAI is preparing for a potential initial public offering that could value it at $1 trillion, Reuters has reported. The company also \u200bfaces growing competition from rivals, including Anthropic. SpaceX is also expected to go public this year at a valuation that could reach $1.75 trillion.<\/p>\n

Musk is seeking $150 \u200bbillion in damages from OpenAI and Microsoft, with any award going to OpenAI\u2019s charitable arm. He also wants OpenAI to revert to a non-profit, with Altman and Brockman removed as officers and Altman removed from the board.<\/p>\n

His claims include breach of charitable trust and unjust enrichment. \u2013 Reuters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Elon Musk accused a lawyer for OpenAI of repeatedly trying to trick him during a tense cross-examination at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":425253,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[220,218,219,605,61,60,1225,7689,80],"class_list":["post-425252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-elon-musk","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-open-ai","tag-sam-altman","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=425252"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425252\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/425253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=425252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=425252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=425252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}