Elon Musk testified at the trial of the lawsuit against OpenAI, which began on Tuesday. The richest man in the world filed a lawsuit against the company and its founders because, in his opinion, they committed treason: they abandoned OpenAI’s mission when they transformed the non-profit organization into a giant corporation. According to Musk, the company’s co-founders, Sam Altman and Greg Brockman, agreed to develop general artificial intelligence at OpenAI “for the benefit of humanity.”
“If we make it acceptable to loot charities, the whole foundation of American charitable giving will be destroyed. That’s what worries me,” said the Tesla and SpaceX chief, who also said that OpenAI was his original idea.
“I came up with the idea, the name, recruited the key people, taught them everything I know, and secured all the seed funding,” Musk said in the According to Reuters. “I specifically intended it to be a charity that would not benefit any individual. I could have started it as a for-profit business, but I specifically chose not to.”
Musk was one of the early investors in the startup, which actually started as a non-profit in 2015, then switched to profit-oriented operation in 2019, after Musk’s departure. In 2023, the company received a gigantic, 10 billion dollar investment from Microsoftwhich did not please Musk, who in the meantime created his own, much less popular version called xAI.
Elon Musk arrives at the federal court in Oakland for the hearing of the lawsuit against OpenAI on April 28, 2026 – Photo: Karl Mondon / AFP
Before Musk testified, OpenAI attorney William Savitt and Sam Altman said in opening statements that it was actually Musk who pushed the company toward for-profit operations when he helped fund OpenAI’s early growth. According to Savitt, Musk only sued after failing to do so.
Musk is now demanding $150 billion in damages from OpenAI and Microsoft, with the amount going to OpenAI’s charity. Musk wants OpenAI to go back to being a nonprofit, and for Altman and Brockman to step down from the board.
By the way, Musk has already He also sued OpenAI in 2024 referring to the same. In the end, the lawsuit did not go very far, because OpenAI made public some email exchanges between his management and Musk, which revealed that in the early years it was Musk who was trying to push the company in the direction of attracting as many investments as possible and focusing on the production of the largest possible profit. Musk then at the last minute backed outand withdrew his claim without giving reasons.
