Overview
- Musk, who is suing OpenAI, Sam Altman, Greg Brockman and Microsoft, finished three days on the stand Thursday in Oakland after sharp exchanges with OpenAI’s lawyer and repeated prompts from the judge to answer directly.
- Emails and texts from 2015 to 2018 showed early talks about a for‑profit arm and Microsoft funding, while Musk said he only backed a capped‑profit subsidiary and admitted he “didn’t read the fine print” on a 2017 term sheet.
- Microsoft’s lawyer cited Musk’s 2020 post saying OpenAI was “captured by Microsoft” to support a statute‑of‑limitations effort that could limit claims against the company.
- The judge barred testimony that would quantify AI “extinction risk,” telling lawyers the case turns on alleged breach of charitable trust rather than debates over AI safety.
- OpenAI president Greg Brockman and then CEO Sam Altman are expected next, with an advisory jury and a mid‑May ruling on liability as Musk seeks up to $150 billion and a court order returning OpenAI to a nonprofit, a move that could upend its investor‑funded model.