Elon Musk Testifies in Court Accusing OpenAI of "Charity Theft," Old Emails Reveal Team Once Considered Offering Him 55% Equity

According to Insight Beating monitoring, the Musk v. OpenAI case entered the stage of opening statements and witness testimony on Tuesday. Musk appeared as the first witness for the plaintiff and referred to OpenAI's commercialization as "robbing a charity organization," stating that "if successful, it would set a precedent for the looting of all charitable organizations in America." He is claiming $1.5 trillion in damages and seeking to reverse OpenAI's commercialization. OpenAI is currently valued at around $730 billion.

The opening statements from both sides were confrontational. Musk's lawyer, Molo, likened OpenAI to "a museum shop stealing from the museum, taking Picasso to profit." OpenAI's lawyer, Savitt, countered by saying this was a case of "sour grapes": after Musk left in 2018, he had no objections to Microsoft's $10 billion investment the following year until ChatGPT became popular. "My client had the courage to achieve this without him, and Musk is unhappy now." Savitt presented emails from Musk's former chief of staff before his departure, outlining a plan to give Musk a 55% stake in the for-profit entity and only 7.5% to Altman.

In his testimony, Musk identified himself as a driving force behind OpenAI: "I came up with the name, recruited key people, and raised funds." He admitted being involved in discussions about establishing a for-profit entity but stated that the for-profit aspect should be limited, "the tail should not wag the dog." He mentioned that he ultimately left because the other founders demanded too much equity in the for-profit entity, a process he found "very annoying." He also recounted the origins of OpenAI: Google co-founder Larry Page referred to him as a "speciesist" (favoring humans over future digital life) during a conversation, prompting him to create OpenAI as a counterbalance to Google.

Microsoft's lawyer, Cohen, claimed that Musk continued to donate during the establishment of OpenAI's for-profit entity, never objected, and only sued after the success of ChatGPT. Cohen also revealed that Microsoft had no prior knowledge when Altman was dismissed by the board in 2023. Musk continued his testimony on Wednesday.