Elon Musk vs. OpenAI in Court: Billionaire Testifies in High-Stakes Nonprofit Dispute

Elon Musk engaged in a heated exchange with an attorney for OpenAI on Thursday, marking his third day of testimony in a high-stakes trial over the company’s transformation from a nonprofit startup to a for-profit venture valued in the hundreds of billions.

The trial, which began with the 2015 founding of the ChatGPT maker, pits Musk against Sam Altman, a fellow OpenAI co-founder. Musk alleges Altman violated promises to maintain the company as a nonprofit dedicated to benefiting humanity.

Tensions escalated early in the proceedings, with discussions touching on existential risks to humanity—including references to The Terminator films—before Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers intervened. She emphasized that this trial does not address AI safety risks or whether AI has harmed humanity, stating:

"This is not a trial on the safety risks of artificial intelligence. This is not a trial on whether or not AI has damaged humanity. It could be one day in a federal court in this country that we may have that trial. That is not this trial and we are not going to get sidetracked on that issue in this trial."

Judge Gonzalez Rogers also cautioned that the public "doesn’t want to put the future of humanity into Mr. Musk’s hands," and directed the parties to avoid discussing AI’s dangers during the trial.

During cross-examination, Musk criticized opposing attorney William Savitt for allegedly asking misleading questions intended to mislead him and the jury. At one point, Savitt questioned Musk about earlier testimony regarding OpenAI’s nonprofit status. Musk had stated that if investor profit caps were set too high, OpenAI could effectively operate as a for-profit entity.

Savitt pressed Musk on his response, asking, "It depends on how high the cap is." Musk replied, "few answers are going to be complete, especially if you cut me off all the time." He added, "If the cap is super high, then OpenAI is really a for-profit at that point."

OpenAI’s legal team has dismissed Musk’s allegations in his civil lawsuit, arguing that there were never guarantees the company would remain a nonprofit indefinitely. They contend Musk’s lawsuit aims to undermine OpenAI’s rapid growth and strengthen his own AI venture, xAI, which he launched in 2023 as a direct competitor.

The trial, held in federal court in Oakland, California, is expected to continue through late May. Judge Gonzalez Rogers excused Musk from the witness stand on Thursday, though he may be recalled later.

During the cross-examination, Savitt also questioned Musk about his other companies—Tesla, SpaceX, Neuralink, and X—all of which operate as for-profit entities. Musk confirmed this and asserted that all are "socially beneficial." Savitt then asked why Musk had not started a nonprofit himself, eight years after founding OpenAI.