Sam Altman · OpenAI · Elon Musk · Microsoft · xAI · California · NPR Technology
OpenAI's Sam Altman takes the stand to fend off Elon Musk's accusations he 'stole a charity'
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OpenAI CEO Sam Altman walks inside the federal courthouse during a recess in the proceedings in the trial over Elon Musk's lawsuit against OpenAI in Oakland, California, on May 12, 2026.
Key facts
- OpenAI CEO Sam Altman walks inside the federal courthouse during a recess in the proceedings in the trial over Elon Musk's lawsuit against OpenAI in Oakland, California, on May 12, 2026
- If the United States District Court for the Northern District of California finds Altman, Brockman and Microsoft liable for Musk's two civil claims, "breach of charitable trust" and "unjust
- Rachael Myrow, Senior Editor of KQED's Silicon Valley News Desk, contributed to this story from Oakland, Calif
- Musk, who donated $38 million to OpenAI early on, wanted control of the for-profit; the other founders were against it
Summary
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman took the stand on Tuesday to defend himself against accusations from co-founder-turned-adversary Elon Musk that he " stole a charity " by converting the maker of ChatGPT into a for-profit juggernaut. The trial, now in its third week, pits two of the tech world's biggest personalities against one another in a high-stakes clash that could usher in major changes for one of the world's leading artificial intelligence companies and potentially alter the AI landscape. Musk's lawyers made the case that OpenAI, Altman and OpenAI president Greg Brockman, with the help of investments from Microsoft, jettisoned OpenAI's founding mission of being a non-profit focused on creating advanced AI for the benefit of humanity.