Billionaire entrepreneur, Elon Musk, last week testified during the second day of proceedings in the trial between him and chief executive officer of OpenAI, Sam Altman. The SpaceX CEO told Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers during the proceedings in federal court in Oakland, California, that OpenAI, which he said was created as a non-profit entity to counter Google, was piloted in breach of that vision by Altman and president of the chip company, Greg Brockman.
Musk in 2024 sued OpenAI, Altman and Brockman, alleging they went back on their promises to keep the artificial intelligence lab a non-profit. The Tesla boss previously sought up to $134 billion in personal damages, but is now asking for “all ill-gotten gains” to go to the OpenAI charity.
However, OpenAI has called the lawsuit “baseless.” The company established a for-profit subsidiary after Musk left its board in 2018, and Musk claims that his $38 million worth of contributions to the company were used for unauthorised commercial purposes.
Musk, who was the first witness called to testify in the trial last week, spoke about his upbringing, his many companies, his role in founding OpenAI and his understanding of its structure.
He said in his testimony that he was not opposed to the creation of a small for-profit subsidiary, “as long as the tail didn’t wag the dog.” The world’s richest man said he was motivated to start OpenAI to serve as a counterweight to Google, adding that he got the idea after an argument he had with Google co-founder, Larry Page, who called Musk a “speciesist for being pro-human.”
Musk added: “I could have started it as a for profit and I chose not to.” Earlier, attorneys for Musk and OpenAI presented their opening arguments to the jury. Musk’s lead trial lawyer, Steven Molo, delivered the opening statement for the Tesla and SpaceX CEO.
OpenAI lawyer William Savitt gave the opening statement for the AI company, Altman and Brockman. OpenAI has characterised Musk’s lawsuit as a baseless “harassment campaign.” The company said Monday in a post on X that it “can’t wait to make our case in court where both the truth and the law are on our side.”
CNBC’s reporters covered the trial from the federal courthouse in Oakland, California, as well as from CNBC’s bureaus in San Francisco and Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.
Musk says he wanted to start OpenAI to oppose Google During his testimony, Musk repeatedly emphasised that he founded OpenAI to serve as a counterweight to Google.
