Testimony Details Musk’s Push to Absorb OpenAI as California Trial Intensifies

Overview

• Greg Brockman, testifying Wednesday in Oakland, said he feared Elon Musk might hit him during a meeting and that Musk then said he would withhold funding for OpenAI.
• Former OpenAI board member Shivon Zilis told jurors Musk discussed giving Sam Altman a Tesla board seat and proposed making OpenAI a Tesla unit or building a Tesla AI lab.
• Brockman also testified that Musk knew about plans to shift OpenAI toward a for‑profit structure to raise the large sums needed for AI computing.
• OpenAI presented messages it says Musk sent two days before the trial that warned Brockman he and Altman would be “the most hated men in the U.S.”
• Musk is asking the court to unwind OpenAI’s for‑profit arm, remove current leaders, and award $150 billion in damages, while OpenAI and Microsoft reject his claims as an effort to hobble a rival to his startup xAI.