Musk’s OpenAI Trial: Old Grudges, New Courtroom

Elon Musk testified under oath for the first time on Tuesday in his ongoing lawsuit against OpenAI, and if you’ve followed his public feuds, you already know the gist of it.

It’s the same story he’s told in interviews and to Walter Isaacson for that biography: he helped fund OpenAI, he was pushed out, and now he’s bitter about it. But hearing it in a courtroom, with a judge and a jury watching, is a different kind of theater.

The core of Musk’s argument is that OpenAI abandoned its original nonprofit mission to develop artificial intelligence for the benefit of humanity, instead becoming a for-profit juggernaut tied to Microsoft. That’s not exactly a controversial take — plenty of people have made that observation. But Musk frames it as a personal betrayal, which is where the testimony got interesting.

He walked through the early days: the 2015 dinner at the Rosewood Hotel where he and Sam Altman and a handful of others decided to start OpenAI. Musk said he personally recruited top researchers, put in serious money — around $50 million by his count — and was deeply involved in the direction of the company.

Then came the split. Musk wanted to take control of OpenAI. Altman and the board said no. Musk left. And now, years later, he’s suing to stop OpenAI from being what it has become.

The legal arguments are shaky. The core claim — breach of contract — relies on a founding agreement that was never really a contract. OpenAI’s lawyers have argued that Musk himself supported the for-profit transition at one point, which he denied under oath. The judge seemed skeptical during earlier hearings.

But the trial isn’t really about legal technicalities. It’s about Musk wanting to be seen as the guy who warned everyone about AI risk, even as he builds his own competing AI company, xAI. It’s about the messy reality of founding a company with people you eventually can’t stand.

Altman hasn’t testified yet, but when he does, it’s going to be interesting. These two have a long history of mutual respect and mutual irritation. The courtroom is just the latest stage for it.

I don’t expect this trial to change much about how OpenAI operates. The company is too big, too embedded in Microsoft’s infrastructure, and too far along to be unwound by a lawsuit. But it does give us a rare look at how these tech titans operate when they can’t just tweet at each other.

Musk’s testimony was long, detailed, and at times emotional. He clearly feels wronged. Whether a jury agrees remains to be seen. But one thing is clear: this isn’t really about AI safety. It’s about an old friendship that soured, and two egos that couldn’t share a room.