Elon Musk Accuses Sam Altman of Betraying OpenAI’s Nonprofit Mission

Elon Musk, the world’s richest tech billionaire, spent a second day on the witness stand in a landmark US trial against Sam Altman, his former co-founder at OpenAI. Musk alleges Altman betrayed pledges to maintain the company as a nonprofit dedicated to humanity’s benefit.

The case centers on OpenAI’s founding as a nonprofit in 2015 and its later shift to a for-profit entity. Musk invested roughly $38 million from 2015 to 2017. Speaking to the jury on April 27, Musk said he lost faith that Altman would uphold the nonprofit mission.

Musk, who left OpenAI in 2018, said by late 2022 he feared Altman was trying to ‘steal the charity’ and asserted ‘it turned out to be true.’ Altman was present in the California federal courtroom but did not testify.

OpenAI’s legal team rejected Musk’s claims, arguing no binding commitment to nonprofit status ever existed. They accused Musk of filing the lawsuit to undermine the ‘AI giant’ for the benefit of his competing venture, xAI. The case comes as OpenAI prepares for an initial public offering that could value the company at $1 trillion, according to Reuters.

OpenAI says it created a for-profit arm to fund its ambitions for computing power and to attract talent. Musk dismissed this, alleging the company had been ‘taken over’ and described Altman’s offer to let him invest as ‘an act of bribery.’

Musk is seeking $150 billion in damages from OpenAI and Microsoft, with any award directed to OpenAI’s charitable arm. He also asks the court to force OpenAI back to nonprofit status and remove Altman and co-founder Greg Brockman from leadership. OpenAI, now structured as a public-benefit corporation, argues Musk’s claims are driven by competition, as his company xAI trails OpenAI in user adoption.