4 Things You Missed From Musk’s Most Uncomfortable Day in Court

On the second day of the trial, there are 4 things you may have missed in Musk’s Most Uncomfortable Day in Court. He explained why he had waited six years to take legal action. Altman’s lawyer asked many questions about Shivon Zilis in the courtroom. Then there was the matter of Musk’s rejection of the CEO title at OpenAI. The last Question discussed in the trial was the revelation of OpenAI’s compensation plan.

On April 28, Musk took the stand in court to speak about the future of OpenAI and clarified the main points regarding the aim behind the founding of this organization, how it was funded as a charity for humanity and presented his case to the court.

The first and most expected question Savitt asked Musk was, if you were so affronted, why did it take you six years to do anything? Musk’s answer was straightforward. He told the court he had no issue with OpenAI creating a for-profit structure as long as it was in support of the nonprofit. The problem, he said, was he had come to the realization that the structure had flipped.

He said that everything became clear to him when Microsoft agreed to invest $10 billion announced in early 2023. That was so much money to be a donation, he said. He texted Altman at once that it was a bait and switch, and explained to the court he would have moved earlier had he known earlier what was going on at the company.

The second incident involved Shivon Zilis, a VC, former OpenAI advisor and mother of four of Musk’s children. Musk denied giving Zilis the instructions to start the paperwork to turn OpenAI into a for-profit corporation, as shown in August 2017 notes from the meeting. Another email from February 2018 revealed Musk asking her to keep an eye on OpenAI, update him on the company and help transfer several employees to Tesla. Musk denied the court he had given these instructions.

The third revelation was in documents released during the trial showing Musk at one time eyed the CEO position at OpenAI for himself. In a 2015 email with Altman, he suggested a co-chair position and said he did not want to be referred to as Co-CEO publicly given his commitments to SpaceX and Tesla and the perception it would give that he was CEO of three large companies. The fourth and most dramatic revelation came when Savitt confronted Musk about his financial contributions to OpenAI.

According to the records, his donations amounted to about $38 million, well short of the up to $1 billion he had originally promised. Musk responded by becoming agitated, saying that his contributions were more than monetary. He told the court that without him there would be no OpenAI. Musk will be back on the stand on Thursday for the third time. Cross-examination will continue and Greg Brockman will also take the stand this week.