Elon Musk Testifies Against OpenAI, Accuses Company of Abandoning Nonprofit Mission

Elon Musk took the stand in a trial against ChatGPT-maker OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman. The lawsuit originally filed in November 2024 accuses the AI company and its executives of reversing their promises to keep OpenAI a nonprofit. The lawsuit's trial began on April 27 with Sam Altman and Greg Brockman attending the day one of trial. Elon Musk was present on the second day as the first witness called to testify in the trial.

In his testimony, Musk spoke about his upbringing, companies he owns, his role in founding OpenAI and his understanding of its structure. Musk argued that the reason he co-founded OpenAI was to keep AI away "from the bad guys." The tech billionaire further argued that he was not opposed to the creation of a small for-profit subsidiary, "as long as the tail didn't wag the dog."

Musk opened by going through his background stating how after being raised in South Africa, he came to Canada for college with "2,500 in Canadian travelers' checks and a bag of clothes and books." From there, he went to the US, working from Zip2 to PayPal to the current, more familiar slate of companies he now runs.

Talking about OpenAI, Musk said the AI company was founded as a nonprofit, open-source counterweight to Google, focused on AI safety. He claimed that the shift to a for-profit structure violated that mission. "It is not ok to steal a charity. If the defendants are found not guilty, this case will become caselaw. It'll give license to looting every charity in America. The consequences of this case go far beyond me or everyone here. The entire foundation of charitable giving in America will be destroyed," he said.

Musk said that his AI concerns date back to conversations with Larry Page, who he felt wasn't taking AI risk seriously. He pinned the entire story of OpenAI on a single 'insult' when Google co-founder Larry Page once called him a "specieist" for being "pro-humanity". Musk further revealed that Larry Page refused to speak to Elon Musk again after Elon recruited Ilya Sutskever to join OpenAI. Elon viewed Ilya as the "number one" most valuable member at Google.

Elon Musk said he tried to warn Obama about AI, but that Obama felt AI was not good enough (back then) to seem scary smart. "Here we are in 2026, AI is very smart." Elon Musk said that he believes AI could surpass human intelligence as soon as next year and poses existential risk in the hands of the wrong people: "If you have someone who's not very trustworthy in charge of AI, that's very dangerous for the whole world."

Elon framed his companies (SpaceX, Neuralink, xAI) as part of a broader mission to protect humanity's future. He said space company SpaceX was founded as "Life insurance for life as we know it"; electric-car manufacturer Tesla was started because he thought continued reliance on fossil fuels "could be pretty bad for the environment and humanity as a whole."

Elon Musk's main argument is that OpenAI abandoned its founding principles, and that precedent could reshape both AI governance and charitable trust. He emphasized OpenAI's original goal: AI for the good of humanity, not profit-driven control. Elon thought in the early days, OpenAI's corporate structure would be a nonprofit funded initially with donations, but there could potentially be a parallel for-profit that is owned by the nonprofit and funds the nonprofit: "We (Sam Altman and Elon) were in agreement that OpenAI would be a 501c3 charity." He further revealed that he was not opposed to there being a small for-profit that provided funding to the nonprofit, as long as "the tail didn't wag the dog." He stated that "there are very few people who understand venture capital in Silicon Valley like I do."