OAKLAND, United States, May 12 (Reuters) – OpenAI CEO Sam Altman on Tuesday rejected Elon Musk’s allegation that he had betrayed the ChatGPT creator’s founding mission of serving the public good and said it was Musk who was interested in taking control of OpenAI and making money from it.
In an August 2024 lawsuit, Musk accused Altman and OpenAI of persuading him to donate $38 million, only to see the nonprofit become a profit-seeking corporation.
The trial, now in its third week, could determine the future of OpenAI and its leadership, as the company prepares for a possible initial public offering that could evaluate[a-la em US$1 trilhão.
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Ao ser questionado por seu advogado no tribunal federal de Oakland, Califórnia, Altman negou a alegação de Musk de que ele e o presidente da OpenAI, Greg Brockman, que também é réu, tentaram ‘roubar uma instituição de caridade’.
Altman disse que ‘é difícil até mesmo envolver minha cabeça nesse enquadramento’ e que ele espera que ‘à medida que a OpenAI continue a se sair bem, a organização sem fins lucrativos se sairá ainda melhor’.
Os advogados de Musk tentaram retratar Altman como um mentiroso sobre seus planos para a OpenAI.
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Musk testemunhou no início do julgamento: ‘Ter alguém que não seja confiável no comando da IA, é um perigo muito grande para o mundo todo.’
O homem mais rico do mundo está buscando cerca de US$150 bilhões em indenizações da OpenAI e da Microsoft, um dos principais investidores da empresa, a serem pagos a uma organização sem fins lucrativos da OpenAI. Musk também quer que Altman e Brockman sejam afastados de suas funções.
ALTMAN RECUSA OFERTA
A OpenAI foi cofundada em 2015 por vários empreendedores, incluindo Musk e Altman.
A empresa tentou mostrar que Musk sabia sobre o plano com fins lucrativos antes de deixar seu conselho de administração em 2018, mas queria o controle da empresa e está processando porque se arrepende de ter perdido possíveis riquezas. A OpenAI criou uma entidade com fins lucrativos em março de 2019.
Perguntado se Musk se opunha ao plano com fins lucrativos, Altman disse ‘muito pelo contrário’.
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Altman recalled that Musk even demanded a 90% stake in OpenAI and said he was ‘extremely uncomfortable’ about giving up majority control, even when Musk eased his demands.
“I had a lot of experience with startups, I had seen a lot of fights for control,” he said, citing Musk’s SpaceX as an example where founders of well-performing companies consolidated power to secure permanent control.
Altman also said that while he and other OpenAI leaders wanted to stand by Musk, he refused to merge the company with Tesla, Musk’s electric car company.
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“I don’t think we would have had the ability to ensure (our) mission was accomplished,” he said. “Fundamentally, Tesla needs to serve its customers and sell cars.”
ALTMAN’S HONESTY QUESTIONED
During questioning, Musk’s lawyer, Steven Molo, questioned Altman’s honesty.
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He cited testimony from a former OpenAI board member that Altman fostered a “toxic culture of lies” and from seven former OpenAI employees who said Altman could not be trusted.
‘Did you cheat people when you did business?’ Molo asked Altman. “I believe I am an honest and trustworthy business person,” Altman responded. ‘That’s not my question. Have you ever cheated people when doing business?’
‘I don’t think so.’
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ALTMAN SURPRESO
The trial marks a clash between the technology giants, with Musk presenting himself as a defender of ordinary people against the dangers of AI and the Silicon Valley titans who care more about money.
This came after OpenAI raised hundreds of billions of dollars from big tech companies and investors to invest in computing power. Altman said OpenAI has raised $175 billion from private investors over its lifetime.
Musk’s departure from the company provoked mixed feelings within OpenAI, Altman said, with some people worried that it would impede funding for the company, while others were relieved to be free of Musk’s demands on researchers’ progress.
“I think Mr. Musk didn’t know how to run a good research lab,” Altman said. ‘He demotivated some of our most important researchers.’
OpenAI President Bret Taylor also testified on Tuesday and stated that OpenAI received a formal acquisition offer from a consortium led by Musk’s rival company, xAI, in February 2025, six months after Musk sued the company.
“I was surprised,” Taylor said. “This proposal was to acquire this nonprofit organization by a group of for-profit investors, which seemed contradictory to the spirit of the lawsuit.”
Depositions could conclude this week, and jurors could begin deliberating whether the defendants are responsible by May 18.
U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, who is overseeing the trial, will determine remedial measures.
In previous testimony, former OpenAI chief scientist Ilya Sutskever stated that he spent about a year gathering evidence for OpenAI directors about Altman’s ‘consistent pattern of lies’, while Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella called his company’s investment in OpenAI a ‘calculated risk’.
Others who testified included Brockman and Shivon Zilis, a former OpenAI board member who is also the mother of four of Musk’s children.
