STORY: Elon Musk took the stand on Tuesday in a high-stakes trial over the future of OpenAI, casting his lawsuit against the ChatGPT maker as a defense of charitable giving.
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Musk, the world's richest person, is suing OpenAI, its co-founder and Chief Executive Sam Altman and its President Greg Brockman saying they betrayed him and the public by abandoning OpenAI's mission to be a benevolent steward of AI for humanity, and transforming the nonprofit into a profit-seeking juggernaut.
Musk and Altman co-founded OpenAI in 2015. In court the Tesla and SpaceX CEO characterized the company as his brainchild.
Musk told jurors Tuesday that, quote, "If we make it okay to loot a charity, the entire foundation of charitable giving in America will be destroyed."
Jurors also heard from OpenAI's attorney William Savitt, who said in his opening statement that it was Musk who pushed to turn OpenAI into a for-profit company, one he hoped to lead.
Savitt said Musk filed the lawsuit only after those efforts failed.
"We are here," he said, "because Musk did not get his way."
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Musk's lawyer said in his opening statement that it was the OpenAI defendants who were greedy for money, as that company began pulling in investors like Microsoft, which put $10 billion into OpenAI in 2023.
Musk started his own AI business, xAI, in the same year.
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While Musk described OpenAI as a charity, the organization called itself a nonprofit artificial intelligence research company in a 2015 post, "Introducing OpenAI."
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Musk is seeking $150 billion in damages from OpenAI and Microsoft, one of its largest investors, with proceeds going to OpenAI's charitable arm.
A lawyer for Microsoft said in his opening statement that the company didn't do anything wrong, and has been a, quote, "responsible partner."
Musk is expected to resume his testimony on Wednesday.
