Musk Testifies OpenAI ‘Stole’ Nonprofit He Co-Founded
SAN FRANCISCO — Elon Musk testified Thursday in his lawsuit against OpenAI, telling the court he believed he co-founded a nonprofit AI lab that was taken from him when the company converted to a for-profit structure.
“I thought I had started a nonprofit with OpenAI but they stole it,” Musk said during testimony, according to Fortune. The Tesla and SpaceX chief executive grew visibly agitated during cross-examination, becoming testy with opposing counsel as questioning intensified.
The testimony comes in the civil litigation pitting Musk against OpenAI and its chief executive Sam Altman, once allies in the artificial intelligence space who have since become rivals. Musk was an early backer and board member of OpenAI when it launched as a nonprofit research lab in 2015, pledging funding to the organization’s mission of developing AI safely for the benefit of humanity.
At the heart of the dispute is OpenAI’s 2019 decision to create a “capped-profit” subsidiary — and its more recent moves toward full for-profit conversion — which Musk argues betrayed the organization’s founding charter and his original donations. OpenAI has maintained that the structural changes were necessary to raise the billions of dollars required to compete in the large language model market.
The case comes as OpenAI is finalizing its conversion to a for-profit public benefit corporation, a transition that has drawn scrutiny from regulators, state attorneys general, and nonprofit watchdogs. Musk, meanwhile, operates his own AI venture, xAI, which competes directly with OpenAI.
The outcome could set precedent for how nonprofit organizations in the technology sector handle transitions to for-profit entities, particularly when early donors challenge such conversions.
The trial is expected to continue in the coming days with additional witnesses. Neither OpenAI nor Musk’s legal team immediately responded to requests for comment beyond the courtroom proceedings.
