On Tuesday, Elon Musk testified in court that his lawsuit against OpenAI and its executives has gone beyond a single corporate dispute and pointed directly at the field of artificial intelligence.Enough to destroy all mankindtechnological future. Musk accused OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and president Greg Brockman of working together to deceive him and abandon OpenAI's original non-profit mission.
Currently, Musk has filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, demanding that OpenAI compensate for US$130 billion in damages, force the company to restore its non-profit structure, and remove Altman and Brockman as directors.
Musk, who owns an artificial intelligence company, admitted on the witness stand in an Auckland court: "I am extremely worried about artificial intelligence." He said that artificial intelligence can both bring prosperity to all mankind, and may also bring devastating consequences to mankind. "We never want to have a Terminator-style tragic ending," Musk said.
OpenAI plans to go public as early as this year, and this lawsuit may severely damage the world's top AI company and the biggest competitor of Musk's AI business. OpenAI has long refuted Musk's accusations, saying its lawsuit was motivated by jealousy and reluctance.
OpenAI's chief defense attorney Bill Savitt said in the opening statement on Tuesday: "The reason why we are suing in court is because Musk's original judgment about OpenAI was completely wrong. Now he is suing because the two parties have become industry competitors. As a competitor, Musk will do whatever it takes to suppress OpenAI."
The jury's verdict will serve as an important reference for Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, who will ultimately decide whether all of Musk's demands are met: forcing OpenAI to return to a non-profit model, removing the two founders as directors, and allocating approximately $130 billion in compensation back to the OpenAI non-profit foundation.
In addition to Musk’s various rectification and compensation demands, this lawsuit is very likely to disrupt OpenAI’s listing process and hinder its industry expansion. As two pioneers in the AI track, the game between Musk and Altman may profoundly reshape the landscape of this emerging but already extremely influential core technology. The market generally expects that OpenAI’s listing will become one of the blockbuster IPOs in history, and the proceeds from the fund-raising will consolidate its early industry-leading position; conversely, if Musk wins the lawsuit, his xAI company will weaken its number one opponent in one fell swoop and achieve overtaking in a corner.
Sam Altman
Even before the opening of the trial for cross-examination, the case was already filled with intense conflicts and constant controversy.
On Monday, Musk continued to post on his social platform
He wrote bluntly: "The fraudsters Altman and Gregg Brockman stole from public welfare institutions. The facts are conclusive and irrefutable."
On Tuesday morning, Judge Rogers issued a stern warning to Musk and threatened a speech ban because of Musk's continued comments on the case on social media. In the end, Musk promised to limit related posts, and Altman and Brockman also reached the same agreement.
In addition, Musk faces multiple obstacles in his path to rights protection. During the jury selection phase of the trial on Monday, his legal team eliminated a number of potential jurors who had strong negative opinions of Musk: Some bluntly called Musk "greedy and despicable" in a questionnaire, and some jurors said that the spending reduction policy of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) led by Musk during the Trump administration had seriously damaged his partner's job and livelihood.
Judge Rogers told Musk's legal team: "The reality is that many people have a bad impression of Musk, but this does not affect the fairness and bottom line of the judicial process." Altman, who appeared in court throughout the whole process to participate in jury selection, has less negative public comments. Most of the final jury members were neutral towards Musk and the artificial intelligence industry.
Boxes of case information from Musk's law firm MoloLamken are delivered to the court
Massive evidence: emails, text messages and call records exposed
In 2015, Musk co-founded and funded the non-profit organization OpenAI. He said that he invested at least US$44 million in the initial stage of its establishment. However, in 2018, a fierce power struggle broke out between the two parties. Musk officially withdrew from the company's board of directors and subsequently founded his own AI company, xAI.
One year after Musk's exit, OpenAI established a for-profit subsidiary to raise funds; in 2025, it was further restructured into a public welfare enterprise and affiliated with the OpenAI Foundation. Musk pointed out in the complaint that this series of restructuring completely betrayed the original intention of the organization, which was to develop safe, open-source artificial intelligence technology that benefits the public; core executives such as Altman and Brockman used their public welfare donations to illegally make profits. In this case, Microsoft was listed as a co-defendant, accused of assisting and condoning OpenAI's violation of its original intention of a public welfare trust.
Musk's attorney, Steven Morrow, alleged in the opening statement: "OpenAI, executives Altman and Brockman, and investor Microsoft took the opportunity to amass money and expand their power, and completely trampled on the core purpose of the establishment of this public welfare organization." Morrow added that Musk participated in discussing the corporate structure in the early days of its establishment and resolutely opposed the commercial profit model; subsequent OpenAI reached an in-depth cooperation with Microsoft, completely deviating from the public interest of all mankind, and because he was busy with other business affairs, he chose to withdraw from the board of directors.
In its motion to dismiss the lawsuit before the trial, Microsoft countered that Musk's accusations lacked factual basis and substantive evidence, and were entirely groundless subjective speculations.
OpenAI gave the exact opposite statement: it was Musk himself who pushed the company's commercialization; the real reason for his resignation was that he tried to take full control of OpenAI but was rejected. This lawsuit is essentially motivated by jealousy, regret for missing a career, and malicious suppression of competing products.
Savitt, chief lawyer of OpenAI, said that when the company's computing power funding gap widened and it planned to set up a profitable subsidiary, Musk demanded exclusive and absolute control and resigned angrily after being opposed by the other founding teams. "The lawsuit was filed in court just because Musk failed to control OpenAI as he wished. My client continued to thrive and succeed after leaving him. Even if Musk is dissatisfied, he has no right to launch a malicious lawsuit." Savitt emphasized.
Hundreds of pages of emails, text messages, call records and internal documents were submitted as core evidence in this trial, completely restoring the internal disputes before and after Musk's resignation. A large number of private communication records show that the private positions of all parties are completely different from their public social remarks.
An email evidence from 2023 shows that Altman once expressed his kindness to Musk, calling him his "idol", and at the same time admitted that he was deeply hurt by Musk's successive comments criticizing OpenAI. Musk wrote back: "I understand how you feel. I didn't mean to hurt anyone, and I deeply apologize for this. But right now, the survival of human civilization hangs on a thread."