Musk's OpenAI Saga Resurfaces: Funding Halted, Power Struggles, Talent Poaching, and Former Girlfriend Kept on Board as Mole

According to Dynamic Beating monitoring, Musk v. OpenAI entered the cross-examination phase on Wednesday, where OpenAI's lawyer Savitt reconstructed a timeline using Musk's own emails and texts. Musk first halted the $5 million quarterly payment in spring 2017, when he was OpenAI's primary funder. Family office head Birchall wrote a letter in August inquiring about continuing to withhold payment, to which Musk replied with a single word: "Yes." Then in September, when discussing establishing a for-profit entity, Musk requested to appoint 4 directors (while the other founders totaled only 3), stating in an email, "I will unquestionably have the initial control of the company." OpenAI co-founder and former chief scientist Sutskever replied rejecting this, believing it gave Musk too much power.

After failing to obtain control in October, Musk remained on the OpenAI board but started poaching talent from OpenAI. He wrote to a Tesla VP saying he had convinced early researcher Karpathy to join Tesla, stating, "The OpenAI folks will be mad at me, but it needs to be done." That same month, he also directly poached from OpenAI for Neuralink co-founders: "Direct hire, no worries from me."

In February 2018, Musk messaged then-OpenAI director Shivon Zilis (mother of Musk's 4 children, Neuralink executive), saying, "We're actively looking to poach 3 to 4 folks from OpenAI to Tesla." Zilis asked if she should continue to stay on the OpenAI board to "keep friendly" and ensure a "constant flow of info," to which Musk agreed. Savitt used this text exchange to argue Musk continued to receive internal information through Zilis after leaving OpenAI.

During the deposition, Musk repeatedly expressed frustration, calling Savitt's questions "designed to deceive me." Judge Gonzalez Rogers at one point asked both parties to calm down. When Savitt pressed Musk about his $1 billion donation pledge but only contributing $38 million, Musk replied, "I contributed my reputation, those things have value." The same day, Savitt earlier used Musk's March tweet to contradict him: Musk testified in the morning that Tesla was not working on AGI, to which Savitt promptly displayed Musk's tweet stating, "Tesla will be one of the companies to make AGI."

Musk continued his deposition on Thursday. Birchall and OpenAI President Brockman are expected to testify afterward.