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Updated on May 12, 2026
In a court in the United States, the head of OpenAI Sam Altman has rejected the claims of another technology expert Elon Musk that he has provided the first vision of the intelligence company.
Tuesday marked the beginning of Altman’s testimony in the controversial trial taking place in Oakland, California, among the richest and most powerful in technology.
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Musk, the richest man in the world sued Altman and OpenAI President Greg Brockman on the grounds that they have “robbed charity” by changing its purpose.
He said that the head of OpenAI persuaded him to spend $ 38bn, based on the goal of improving humanity, just to see the company make a profit in 2019.
During Tuesday’s testimony, Altman instead cast Musk as a potential competitor to control OpenAI.
“It doesn’t fit my definition of ‘charitable robbery’ to look at what happened here,” Altman told the court.
The two men have been in love for a long time, driven by different ideas about artificial intelligence.
Musk – a self-described liberal “absolutist” – is currently running his own AI chatbot, Grok, which is accused of promoting right-wing conspiracy theories and offensive tools.
He wants $150bn in venture capital from OpenAI and Microsoft, one of his biggest businesses.
Altman’s testimony comes more than two weeks into the trial, which has seen him and Musk face off square off against each other.
In his testimony, Altman said that Musk knew about plans to turn OpenAI into a for-profit business when he invested, and said that Musk asked for a majority stake in the company.
“The original estimate that Mr. Musk came up with was that he needed to have 90 percent of the capital to get started,” Altman told the jury. “Then it softened, but it was always too much.”
The test results may determine the future of OpenAI, its leadership, and things like ChatGPT. As part of his lawsuit, Musk is pushing for Altman and Brockman to be fired.
The lawsuit comes as OpenAI prepares for an initial public offering that could see it valued at $1 trillion, the most money in history.
At first glance, Musk introduced Altman as a liar who could not be trusted with the development of technology.
“If you have someone who’s not trustworthy in charge of AI, I think that’s the biggest risk in the world,” Musk said.
Musk’s attorney, Steven Molo, also sought to impugn Altman’s credibility during an interview on Tuesday.
“Do you mislead people when you do business?” Molo asked Altman.
“I don’t think so,” Altman said.
Altman, meanwhile, wanted to question Musk’s leadership; Musk eventually left the OpenAI board in 2018 to pursue his own AI development.
“I don’t think Mr. Musk understands how to run a good research lab,” Altman said. “They took down our most important researchers.”
The US people, on the other hand, have been very dissatisfied and advanced rhetoric about the transformative potential of AI.
A March 2026 survey conducted by the Pew Research Center said that the majority of US respondents believe that AI will worsen, rather than improve, the ability to think critically, build relationships, make difficult decisions, and solve problems.
Only 10 percent of respondents said they were more excited than concerned about the increasing use of AI in everyday life.
But the industry has been quick to translate its economic power into political power as policymakers consider how to manage the technology.
The use of AI has emerged as an election season issue as the US midterms approach in November, and the administration of President Donald Trump has developed a “national policy” to prevent the technology from violating government regulations.
The AI industry has been driving eye-watering revenue in recent years, with the United Nations estimating that the global market could reach $4.8 trillion by 2033.
