Altman says Musk demanded ‘90 percent control’ of OpenAI at explosive trial

Elon Musk was “obsessed” with controlling OpenAI, the artificial intelligence company’s chief executive Sam Altman told a California court on Tuesday during a high-profile legal battle between the two tech titans.

Altman appeared at a federal court in Oakland as part of Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI over its transformation from a non-profit research lab into the commercial powerhouse behind ChatGPT.

Musk alleges that Altman and OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman misused the $38 million he invested in the company, arguing the organization abandoned its original mission of developing AI for the benefit of humanity.

“It does not fit with my conception of the words ‘stealing a charity’ to look at what has actually happened here,” Altman told the court.

Founded as a non-profit in 2015, OpenAI created a for-profit subsidiary in 2019 to attract massive investments needed to compete in the rapidly escalating AI race. Altman and other executives say the shift was essential to secure funding from investors including Microsoft.

Musk’s lawsuit seeks to force OpenAI back into non-profit status, a move that could affect its ability to compete with rivals such as Anthropic, Google and China’s DeepSeek.

OpenAI argues Musk’s lawsuit is driven by resentment after he failed to gain control of the company and later launched competing AI venture xAI.

Altman testified that Musk initially sought overwhelming control of OpenAI’s commercial arm.

“An early number that Mr. Musk threw out was that he should have 90 percent of the equity to start,” Altman said. “It then softened, but it always was a majority.”

Altman added that Musk’s reluctance to commit in writing to arrangements limiting his long-term control made him uneasy, saying OpenAI’s founders believed no single individual should dominate artificial general intelligence (AGI).

According to Altman, Musk left the company after failing to secure control and warned OpenAI had “zero percent” chance of succeeding without him.

During cross-examination, Musk’s lawyer Steven Molo aggressively questioned Altman’s credibility, asking whether he was “completely trustworthy” and if he “always” told the truth.

Altman briefly lost his position as OpenAI chief in November 2023 after the company’s board accused him of lacking transparency, but he was reinstated within days following an employee revolt.

Separately on Tuesday, prosecutors from 10 US states urged the Securities and Exchange Commission to investigate potential conflicts of interest involving Altman ahead of a possible OpenAI public offering next year.

The case has also revealed the enormous financial stakes surrounding AI development. Court proceedings disclosed that Brockman holds a stake in OpenAI reportedly worth about $30 billion.

On Monday, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella testified that the company was “very proud” of its investment in OpenAI, saying Microsoft’s initial $13 billion backing had multiplied more than tenfold in value.

An advisory jury is expected to deliver its opinion on potential wrongdoing during the week of May 18, after which Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers will issue the final ruling on liability and possible remedies.