Updated on: April 29, 2026 / 6:37 PM EDT / CBS/AP
Elon Musk told a federal court Wednesday that he was a “fool” for helping finance the creation of ChatGPT maker OpenAI, testifying in a civil suit he filed against the company and some of its leaders.
Musk said he kept funding OpenAI after then-CEO Sam Altman assured him the organization would remain a nonprofit. He testified that over time he grew skeptical of the company’s direction and felt betrayed when he believed its priorities shifted toward profit.
In the lawsuit, Musk accuses OpenAI, Altman and President Greg Brockman of breaching the organization’s founding agreement by favoring commercial interests over a pledge to operate as a nonprofit focused on benefiting humanity. The trial, held in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, opened Monday and is expected to run about four weeks.
Musk testified that he contributed $38 million to OpenAI between December 2015 and May 2017. He noted that OpenAI is now valued at more than $85 billion. OpenAI’s attorneys reject Musk’s claims, saying its leaders never promised the company would be a nonprofit forever and that Musk’s lawsuit is intended to impede OpenAI’s growth and aid his rival company, xAI, which he launched in 2023.
Heated cross-examination
During cross-examination, Musk often pushed back against questions from OpenAI lawyer William Savitt. Savitt pointed to pre-founding emails from 2015 and asked whether it would have been wiser to form a for-profit company at the outset and whether Musk’s donations might have qualified for tax deductions.
“Your questions are not simple,” Musk told the lawyer. “They are designed to trick me essentially.” He added that a straightforward answer could mislead the jury.
At one point, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers asked Musk to answer whether it was true that OpenAI had been formed as a nonprofit in December 2015. Musk said yes but cautioned that the matter was not always simple, comparing the exchange to a loaded question. The judge cut him off, saying, “We are not going to go there,” drawing laughter in the courtroom.
High stakes
The case carries potentially significant consequences for the power dynamics in artificial intelligence. Musk’s suit seeks to remove Altman from OpenAI’s board and could, if successful, complicate OpenAI’s plans for an initial public offering.
Musk described his evolving view of Altman and the other cofounders as moving from excitement to loss of confidence, and by late 2022 to a belief that they were betraying their original promise. OpenAI contends that Musk wanted control of the company for himself; Musk testified he initially sought a majority stake and control of four of seven board seats but said those holdings would have been diluted as the company expanded, comparing the process to his early majority stake in Tesla.
Courtroom sketches showed Musk on the witness stand in Oakland, where he argued OpenAI has abandoned its founding mission to remain a nonprofit dedicated to benefiting humanity.