OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman has denied Elon Musk’s claim that he betrayed the artificial intelligence company’s founding mission, telling a U.S. court that Musk understood and even sought control of OpenAI’s move toward a for-profit structure.
Altman began testifying Tuesday in federal court in Oakland, California, in a closely watched trial over Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI, Altman and OpenAI president Greg Brockman. Musk alleges that OpenAI’s leaders “stole a charity” by shifting the organisation away from its original nonprofit purpose of developing artificial intelligence for the benefit of humanity.
On the witness stand, Altman rejected that accusation, arguing that OpenAI’s evolution was necessary to fund the expensive computing power and research needed to build advanced AI systems. “It does not fit with my conception of the words ‘stealing a charity’ to look at what has actually happened here,” he told the court.
Musk, who co-founded OpenAI with Altman and others in 2015 before leaving its board in 2018, is seeking damages and governance changes that could reshape the company behind ChatGPT. Earlier in the trial, Musk testified that Altman could not be trusted to lead a technology with global consequences.
Altman countered that Musk was not excluded from OpenAI’s future, but instead wanted control of it. He testified that Musk once proposed taking a dominant equity stake in the organisation, saying an early figure discussed was “90 percent” before later softening to a majority position. Business Insider also reported that Altman testified Musk wanted “total control” of OpenAI and even raised the idea that control could pass to his children.
Musk’s lawyer, Steven Molo, challenged Altman’s credibility during cross-examination, asking whether he had misled people in business. Altman replied that he did not think so. Axios reported that the testimony sharpened the central question in the trial: whether Musk or Altman can be trusted to put AI safety ahead of money, influence and control.
The case comes as OpenAI prepares for a possible initial public offering that could value the company at about $1 trillion. Microsoft, one of OpenAI’s biggest investors, is also a defendant in the case.
The trial has exposed years of tension between Musk and Altman, two of the most powerful figures in technology. Its outcome could affect OpenAI’s leadership, corporate structure and the future of one of the world’s most influential artificial intelligence companies.
