In Musk v. OpenAI trial, Brockman testifies that Musk pushed for for-profit structure and sought majority control; Zilis reveals Musk attempted to recruit Altman to lead AI lab at Tesla

Musk filed suit seeking to remove Altman and Brockman from their roles, unwind OpenAI's restructuring to a public benefit corporation, and obtain as much as $134 billion in damages from OpenAI and Microsoft. Musk cofounded OpenAI in 2015 and left in 2018.

Brockman testified that in summer 2017, after OpenAI's AI model beat world-class players in Dota 2, Musk pushed to create a for-profit entity to raise capital for artificial general intelligence (powerful AI that can compete with humans on most cognitive tasks). Brockman said Musk demanded majority equity, the right to choose a majority of board members, and the CEO role. When cofounders proposed equal equity shares, Musk declined, stood up, and walked out with a Tesla painting Sutskever had brought.

Shivon Zilis, a former OpenAI board member, testified that Musk tried to recruit OpenAI CEO Sam Altman to lead a new AI lab within Tesla. OpenAI's lawyer argued Musk is suing to undermine a competitor in the AI race.

Musk's xAI, founded in 2023 and now a division of SpaceX, is expected to go public as early as June at a target valuation of $1.75 trillion. OpenAI's IPO is projected at a valuation approaching $1 trillion.