Elon Musk Under Oath: The OpenAI Trial Gets Personal
In a San Francisco federal courtroom on Tuesday, Elon Musk took the stand in his ongoing lawsuit against OpenAI — and did what he's done in interviews and books before: told the story of how a friendship soured into one of the most consequential legal battles in tech history.
The twist this time? He was under oath.
A Friendship, a Mission, and a Falling Out
Musk co-founded OpenAI in 2015 alongside Sam Altman and other prominent figures in the AI world, with the stated goal of developing artificial intelligence safely and for the benefit of humanity — explicitly as a nonprofit. He was among the organization's earliest and most prominent financial backers.
He departed from OpenAI's board in 2018, and the two sides have offered sharply different accounts of why. Musk has claimed he was pushed out; OpenAI has said he left voluntarily after a failed bid to take control of the company.
The story Musk told under oath on Tuesday echoes the version he gave author Walter Isaacson for his bestselling biography of the tech billionaire — a personal account of broken trust, diverging visions, and what Musk describes as a betrayal of OpenAI's founding principles.
What the Lawsuit Is Actually About
At its core, Musk's lawsuit alleges that OpenAI has abandoned its original nonprofit mission in favour of commercial profit — particularly after its deepening partnership with Microsoft, which has invested billions into the organization. Musk contends that the shift toward a for-profit structure violates the agreements under which the company was founded and the expectations of its early donors.
OpenAI and its leadership, including CEO Sam Altman, have pushed back strongly, arguing that the Microsoft partnership and the evolving corporate structure are necessary to fund the enormous compute costs required to responsibly develop frontier AI.
Why It Matters Beyond the Courtroom
The trial isn't just a dispute between billionaires — it goes to the heart of a fundamental question about who controls the development of transformative AI technology, and whether the people building it can be held to the promises they made at the outset.
With AI increasingly shaping everything from healthcare to national security, the outcome could have wide-reaching implications for how AI companies are governed, how they raise capital, and whether their nonprofit origins carry any legal weight at all.
Musk launched his own AI venture, xAI, in 2023 — a move critics point to as evidence that the lawsuit is more about competitive positioning than principle. His legal team disputes that characterization.
What Comes Next
The trial is expected to continue in the coming weeks, with testimony from other key figures in OpenAI's founding anticipated. Internal communications from the organization's early years are expected to feature prominently in the proceedings.
Tuesday's testimony may have been the first time Musk said these things under oath — but in a case this consequential, it almost certainly won't be the last time the world hears them.
Source: TechCrunch
