Elon Musk finally testifies in his long-running OpenAI lawsuit

Elon Musk finally sat down in court to testify in the lawsuit he’s been dragging against OpenAI. This is the one where he’s going after Sam Altman and Greg Brockman, the other two guys who were there at the very beginning with him.

Musk put in up to $38 million of his own money early on, back when OpenAI was still a nonprofit with big ideals. Then things went south. The founding team couldn’t agree on the company’s structure or mission. At one point, there was even talk about folding OpenAI into Tesla, which Musk owned. He wasn’t having it. He walked away, and a few years later started xAI, which is now a direct competitor to OpenAI. Funny how that works. xAI is technically owned by Musk’s SpaceX, so you’ve got a tangled web of personal grudges and corporate interests here.

Since then, Musk has filed at least four separate lawsuits against OpenAI. Most of them got tossed or settled quietly. This one stuck. The core argument is that OpenAI abandoned its original nonprofit mission in favor of profit, and that Altman and Brockman misled him and others about the direction of the company. It’s not a new complaint — plenty of people have made the same observation — but it’s rare to see it play out in a courtroom with the CEO on the stand.

I’ve been following this saga for a while, and honestly, it feels less like a legitimate legal dispute and more like a very expensive way for Musk to air old grievances. The man is worth hundreds of billions. He could have settled this years ago. Instead, he keeps filing lawsuits, and now we get to watch him testify under oath about why he thinks OpenAI screwed him over. It’s theater, but it’s theater with real stakes for how AI companies structure themselves.

The trial itself is going to be interesting for anyone who cares about the messy history of AI development. We’ll hear about those early boardroom fights, the pivot from nonprofit to “capped-profit,” and whether Musk was really acting in good faith or just trying to slow down a competitor. My money’s on the latter, but I’ll let the court decide.

No word yet on when a verdict might come down, but expect this to drag on. Musk doesn’t do quick exits.