Musk sought settlement with OpenAI two days before trial
Two days before Elon Musk’s multibillion-dollar lawsuit against OpenAI was set to go to trial, Musk texted the company’s president, Greg Brockman, to gauge his interest in a deal: according to a filing Late Sunday.
“When Mr. Brockman responded with a suggestion that both sides drop their claims, Mr. Musk responded: ‘By the end of this week, you and Sam will be the most hated men in America. If you persist, it will be,'” the filing said.
Musk, one of the founders of OpenAI in 2015, lawsuit filed The company accused Brockman and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman of reneging on their commitment to keep the AI company a nonprofit in 2024 and pursue its philanthropic mission.
Hearings began last week in federal court in Oakland, California, and Brockman may be called to testify as soon as Monday. OpenAI’s lawyers moved to add Musk’s text into evidence, suggesting they planned to bring it up while Brockman was on the stand.
“This tends to prove motive and bias, and specifically that Mr. Musk’s motivation for pursuing this case was to attack a competitor and its principals,” the attorneys wrote in the filing.
Musk took the witness stand last week, and his testimony dominated the first week of the trial. Over the course of three days, he answered questions about his role in launching OpenAI and repeatedly accused Altman and Brockman of trying to “steal a charity.”
He also answered questions about xAI, a rival artificial intelligence startup he founded five years after leaving OpenAI’s board in 2018. In February, Musk merged xAI with rocket company SpaceX in a deal that valued the startup at $250 billion.
OpenAI began embracing commercialization after Musk left the board and launched a for-profit subsidiary in 2018. This business started booming after the launch of ChatGPT in late 2022, and OpenAI is now valued at more than $850 billion by private investors.
In his lawsuit, Musk argues that approximately $38 million he donated to OpenAI in its early years was used for unauthorized commercial purposes. He has repeatedly said at the podium that OpenAI’s for-profit arm has become “the tail wagging the dog.”
OpenAI dismissed Musk’s claims as “baseless”.
Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers is presiding over the case and proceedings will resume at 11:30 a.m. ET on Monday.
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