Elon Musk spent three days testifying in his lawsuit against OpenAI this week, and the courtroom drama is far from over.
The trial surfaced a trove of internal communications — emails, text messages, and Musk's own tweets — as the Tesla CEO argued that Sam Altman betrayed OpenAI's original nonprofit mission by converting the company to a for-profit structure. More witnesses are scheduled to take the stand in the coming weeks, meaning this particular legal fight isn't close to wrapping up.
This matters because it pulls back the curtain on OpenAI's early internal politics. Musk was an early board member and co-founder before departing in 2018, and his lawsuit claims the switch to a capped-profit model in 2019 — later restructured again — violated the company's founding agreement with the public. The communications now entering the record show exactly what was said and promised before Altman brought in Microsoft billions.
The irony is that Musk is now running his own AI company, xAI, with a for-profit structure. Whether the court sees that as relevant or the jury simply tunes out the inconsistency remains to be seen.