Sam Altman took the stand Tuesday in Oakland, defending OpenAI against Elon Musk's claim he "stole a charity," while admitting an indirect equity stake.
Altman Recounts Musk's Exit
Altman testified for roughly four hours at the federal courthouse in Oakland, California, where Musk's 2024 lawsuit accuses him and OpenAI president Greg Brockman of betraying the company's nonprofit charter, NBC News reported.
Musk is asking the court to unwind OpenAI's for-profit conversion. Fortune reported the company is now valued at $852 billion.
Under direct questioning, Altman said Musk "demotivated" key researchers by ranking them and firing those at the bottom.
He called Musk's 2018 departure from the board a "morale boost" for staff.
Altman also recounted what he called a "hair-raising moment" when Musk mused that OpenAI might pass to his children if he died.
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Molo Targets Altman Credibility
Musk's lawyer, Steven Molo, opened cross-examination with one question: "Are you completely trustworthy?" Altman replied that he believed he was a truthful person.
Legal observers say the credibility frame matters because Musk needs the jury to see Altman as self-dealing rather than mission-driven.
A ruling for Musk could scramble OpenAI's planned IPO later this year, with more than $130 billion at stake for the nonprofit arm.
Piedmont Exedra noted that Molo challenged Altman's 2023 Senate Judiciary Committee testimony, in which Altman said he had no equity in OpenAI but did not disclose an indirect stake held through another entity in which he was invested. That admission landed as the day's most consequential exchange.
The disclosure gap matters because House Oversight Committee Republicans recently launched a probe into Altman's financial dealings.
Trial Wraps Toward Verdict
OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever, Microsoft chief Satya Nadella, and board chair Bret Taylor all appeared earlier in the proceedings. Altman concluded his testimony Tuesday and walked out of the courtroom behind Brockman.
Closing arguments are set for Thursday, with jury deliberations expected to follow. Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers is presiding.
OpenAI's legal team has argued throughout the trial that Musk is targeting a competitor after launching xAI in 2023, citing once-private texts that show Musk supported a for-profit structure before falling out with the founders. Musk donated $38 million to OpenAI in its earliest years, court testimony confirmed.
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