OpenAI’s Sam Altman ‘stole a charity’, Elon Musk claims as trial begins
Opening arguments kick off legal battle over whether the $850bn start-up sold out its non-profit mission
Elon Musk’s lawyer told a jury on Tuesday that OpenAI’s chief executive Sam Altman “stole a charity” by converting the AI lab into a for-profit entity now valued at $850bn, against its mission of ensuring AI would benefit humanity.
Steven Molo, Musk’s lead trial lawyer, likened OpenAI to a non-profit museum with a gift shop, saying the “museum store” cannot “sell the Picasso and pocket the profits”.
“No one should be allowed to steal a charity . . . to steal a charity is absolutely wrong,” Molo added.
The billionaire entrepreneur sat in court in Oakland, California, on Tuesday, alongside OpenAI’s president Greg Brockman and Altman, as attorneys presented opening arguments in a high-stakes legal clash over the world’s most valuable start-up.
The case brought by Musk claims he was deceived into donating roughly $38mn to OpenAI, believing it would remain a non-profit organisation. He has accused Altman and Brockman of unjustly enriching themselves by converting the start-up into a for-profit company.
If Musk wins the four-week trial, it could unwind OpenAI’s restructuring, completed last October, and jeopardise its ambitions for a trillion-dollar initial public offering, generating potentially huge returns for investors. It could also force Altman and Brockman off OpenAI’s board.
Citing OpenAI’s founding documents from December 2015, which state its goal as advancing “digital intelligence in the way that is most likely to benefit humanity as a whole, unconstrained by a need to generate financial return”, Molo argued “it wasn’t a vehicle for people to be rich”.
Microsoft — OpenAI’s largest shareholder — is also accused of “aiding and abetting” the start-up’s conduct.
The defendants deny all claims.
In addition to Musk’s early financial contributions to OpenAI, Molo said, the billionaire called on his network to ask them to do “favours” for the fledgling AI start-up, including Nvidia and Microsoft.
“Without Elon Musk, there would be no OpenAI, pure and simple,” Molo said.
Evidence expected over the course of the trial is expected to include emails, text messages and diary entries from Brockman’s personal journal, including an excerpt uncovered in discovery, in which he wrote: “This is the only chance we have to get out from Elon . . . Financially, what will take me to $1bn?”
Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers warned Musk over his prolific social media posts about OpenAI relating to the case. “There were a lot of tweets . . . and it really doesn’t help to have stuff going on outside the courtroom that is inflammatory,” the judge said.
Musk argued he posted in response to OpenAI’s social media activity ahead of the trial.
OpenAI’s opening arguments will also be heard on Tuesday, which are expected to include that the allegations are past the statute of limitations, that Musk’s conduct bars his claims and that the start-up retains a non-profit committed to its founding mission.