Overview
- OpenAI president Greg Brockman told the Oakland court that Elon Musk demanded control of the company in a 2017 meeting and that he briefly feared Musk might hit him.
- Under oath, Brockman said Musk talked about needing about $80 billion to build a self-sustaining city on Mars and sought control of OpenAI to enable projects on that scale.
- Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers ruled that a reported pretrial text exchange, which OpenAI said included a threat from Musk, would not be admitted as evidence.
- OpenAI presented 2017–2018 emails and notes that it says show Musk pushed for a for‑profit structure, while Musk acknowledged his xAI trains its Grok chatbot using OpenAI models.
- The bench trial uses a nine-person advisory jury, and the outcome could change OpenAI’s governance and influence how big-money partnerships shape the AI sector.