Elon Musk He approaches the window of the federal courthouse in Oakland, California, and poses for the cameras with a gesture of approval. He seems happy. It is the second day of the trial that pits the richest man in the world against OpenAIthe company he helped found in 2015 and which, after his departure, propelled itself to global success thanks to ChatGPT. The legal battle between both technological titans threatens to transform the industry artificial intelligence.
From the stand, Musk has accused Sam Altman y Greg BrockmanCEO and president of OpenAI, to manipulate him into allocating $38 million to the creation of a laboratory for IA non-profit. “I was a fool who provided them with free funding to create a start-up“lamented the technology magnate.
Musk abandoned the project in 2018 after failing to unilaterally gain control of it. In 2024, he filed a lawsuit against its directors for converting what was supposed to be a “charity organization” into a for-profit company now valued at 852 billion. With his departure to ifscheduled for the end of 2026, OpenAI could skyrocket its valuation to $1 trillion.x
Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, before the trial he faces against Elon Musk, / David Paul Morris / Bloomberg
Throughout the first two days of trial, the owner of Tesla, SpaceX y X He has presented himself as a hero, saying that he only wanted to control OpenAI to make sure it was “on the right path.” On the contrary, he has described Altman and Brockman—whom he came to admire in his day—as liars that have corrupted the start-up’s original mission to “benefit all humanity.” “It’s not right steal a charity,” he said during his testimony Tuesday.
Musk and his lawyer have assured that the moment his alarm went off was when Microsoft announced in early 2023 that it would invest $10 billion in OpenAI, which had just become a global phenomenon after the launch of ChatGPT. The tycoon called the investment “misleading advertising” and warned that the computer giant would seek to “obtain a very high return.” “What the hell is going on?” he claims he wrote to Altman. According to Musk’s version, the CEO of OpenAI offered him shares in the company, but he rejected them. “Frankly, it seemed like a bribe to me,” he explained.
Questioned by OpenAI
Musk’s version has been questioned by OpenAI’s lead lawyer, William Savittwhich before the trial presented as evidence emails in which the magnate claimed to know and support the conversion of the project into a for-profit company. He has also pointed out the lack of coherence in some of Musk’s arguments regarding his involvement with the creator of ChatGPT, providing an affidavit in which he indicated that he had invested 100 million dollars instead of the 38 indicated from the stand.
The president of OpenAI, Greg Brockman, after the second day of the trial against Elon Musk. / Benjamin Fanjoy / Getty Images
In a tense exchange, Musk has accused OpenAI’s lawyer of asking “conceptually complex” questions. Savitt also has his own particular history with the tycoon. Although he represented Musk and Tesla in a lawsuit for stock fraud, years later he changed sides and represented the board of directors of Twitter when the billionaire tried to withdraw his purchase offer from the social network, reports The New York Times.
Musk is allocating his time and resources to the trial with an ambitious objective: to get the judge in the case to agree with him, to access a compensation of $150 million, achieve the dismissal of Altman and Brockman and reverse OpenAI’s business structure so that it returns to a non-profit organization. In about a month we will know if there is a ruling in line with their ambitions.
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