What you need to know
Elon Musk said he had concerns about the nonprofit being “stolen” in 2018.Musk said Microsoft’s $10 billion investment in the nonprofit was a tipping point and he lost trust in Sam Altman by late 2022.Musk said he “was a fool” for giving OpenAI and Altman the funding that was then used to created an $800 billion company.Jared Birchall, who manages Musk’s family office and is also an executive at xAI and Neuralink, will be next to testify.
Elon Musk continued his testimony on Wednesday as the high-profile trial in his lawsuit against OpenAI CEO Sam Altman entered its third day.
Musk said he “was a fool” for giving the startup $38 million that was turned into an $800 billion company.
“They should not get rich off a nonprofit, that’s not right,” he said from the stand.
The Tesla and SpaceX CEO said he texted directly when he learned about Microsoft’s $10 billion investment in the fall of 2022, which was a tipping point.
“By late 2022, I’d lost trust in Altman and I was concerned that they were really trying to steal the charity,” Musk said.
Musk sued OpenAI, Altman and Greg Brockman, the company’s president, two years ago, alleging they reneged on their commitments to preserve the artificial intelligence lab’s nonprofit structure. Musk, who co-founded OpenAI in 2015, claims the roughly $38 million he contributed to the company was used for unauthorized commercial purposes that did not advance its charitable mission.
Testifying on Tuesday, Musk told the jury about his background, his role in launching OpenAI and his understanding of its structure. He said he believes the time, money, expertise and resources he poured into the company during its early days were foundational to its success.
Musk left OpenAI’s board in 2018 after a number of disagreements with Altman and Brockman about the company’s direction, including a failed effort to merge it with Tesla. Following Musk’s departure, OpenAI established a for-profit subsidiary that allowed it to raise the capital it needed to develop its technology more easily.
OpenAI has repeatedly dismissed Musk’s lawsuit as baseless. William Savitt, OpenAI’s attorney, told the jury on Tuesday that Musk sued because he “didn’t get his way at OpenAI.”
Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers is presiding over the trial in federal court in Oakland, California.
CNBC’s reporters are covering the trial, live on air and online, from the courtroom, as well as from CNBC’s bureaus in San Francisco and Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.