OpenAI attorney William Savitt spent hours trying to get under Elon Musk's skin on the witness stand. Musk gave as good as he got. The Tesla CEO accused Savitt of lying and asking questions "designed to trick" him during a heated cross-examination on the third day of the blockbuster trial over OpenAI's shift from nonprofit to profit machine. The two clashed repeatedly before Musk finally wrapped his testimony Thursday in federal court in Oakland, according to CNBC.
Musk sued OpenAI, CEO Sam Altman, and President Greg Brockman in 2024, alleging they abandoned the company's founding mission to develop artificial intelligence for humanity's benefit. He claims the roughly $38 million he donated to seed OpenAI was used for unauthorized commercial purposes after the company established a for-profit subsidiary in 2019.
Musk's attorney Steven Molo opened the trial by telling jurors that Altman "stole a charity" and turned it into what he called a "profit-seeking juggernaut," Fox Business reported. Molo argued OpenAI leaders were "interested in collecting riches for themselves."
Musk is seeking $150 billion in damages from OpenAI and Microsoft, with the proceeds directed to OpenAI's charitable arm. He also demands the company revert to a nonprofit structure and that Altman and Brockman be removed from leadership.
Under oath Thursday, Musk said Tesla is not developing artificial general intelligence, or AGI, and has no plans to. "Tesla's AI is meant for self-driving cars. As opposed to, you know, it's not a giant AI model that can answer any question," he testified. Musk did confirm that Tesla has invested $2 billion into his rival AI company xAI and integrated its Grok chatbot into Tesla vehicles.
OpenAI argues Musk knew about and supported the for-profit transition in 2019, and only filed suit after he failed to take over as CEO and started xAI. The company's lawyers have called the lawsuit a baseless "harassment campaign."
Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers told Musk to "try to control your propensity to use social media to make things work outside the courtroom," after the billionaire posted about his former partner "Scam Altman" on X during the proceedings. Both sides agreed to minimize online activity for the trial's duration. With Musk off the stand, his attorneys called Jared Birchall, who manages Musk's billions at his family office. Birchall faced questions about why a Musk-led investor group made a multi-billion-dollar bid to acquire OpenAI last year.
Greg Brockman and UC Berkeley computer science professor Stuart Russell could also testify.
Jurors are expected to begin deliberating on liability by mid-May.
