Elon Musk took the witness stand in an Oakland federal court on Tuesday as opening arguments began in his $134 billion lawsuit against OpenAI, Sam Altman and Greg Brockman.
Oakland Trial Opens
Musk's lead lawyer, Steven Molo, told a nine-person advisory jury that the defendants "stole a charity," according to coverage from CNBC and NPR. He compared the case to a museum looting its own Picassos.
OpenAI counsel William Savitt pushed back, arguing that Musk simply "didn't get his way" and once tried to fold the lab into Tesla.
Musk testified that he would have backed a safe-AI nonprofit "with or without Sam Altman and Greg Brockman." He has renounced personal damages and pledged any award to OpenAI's nonprofit foundation.
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Altman, Brockman At Risk
The two surviving claims, unjust enrichment and breach of charitable trust, seek up to $134 billion returned to the charity, the removal of Altman and Brockman, and a reversion to nonprofit status.
Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers split the proceeding into liability and remedies phases. The trial is expected to run roughly four weeks, with Microsoft chief Satya Nadella and OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever among scheduled witnesses.
Musk co-founded OpenAI in 2015 and left in 2018 after a power struggle. He later launched xAI, while OpenAI evolved in 2025 into a for-profit public benefit corporation under its foundation, the structure now at the center of the dispute.
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