Sam Altman wins on the Stand, But is it enough?

Sam Altman walked into a federal courthouse in downtown Oakland to take the stand in the trial of his life. It was the first time he’d testified at a trial, and it was against his former business partner and current nemesis, Elon Musk. The company Musk and Sam Altman had started was intended to be a non-profit, but now Musk says it has “stolen” one.

The fate of one of the world’s most powerful artificial intelligence companies, as well as vast sums of money and several key executive positions, all hang in the balance in this showdown between two legends of Silicon Valley. Sam Altman was prepared to fight back. Whether the argument he made from the witness stand would actually persuade the jurors remained to be seen.

This book chronicles the story of a High-Stakes 

On May 12, 2026, Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, appeared in a federal court in Oakland, California, to testify on behalf of himself and his company in response to a lawsuit brought by Elon Musk. Now in its third week, it’s one of the most high-stakes legal cases in Silicon Valley history, a matchup between two of the industry’s most powerful players that could shape the future of AI.

What Musk is asking for?

Musk sues OpenAI, Sam Altman, OpenAI president Greg Brockman and Microsoft for violating the original intent of OpenAI. Musk says it was a “stealing of a charity” when OpenAI moved from non-profit to for-profit, because the organization meant to place the profits into the public good.Musk says that when OpenAI went from a non-profit to a for-profit, it essentially stole a charity out of its host, since the money was intended to be applied to the public good.

He is asking the court to set aside that conversion, remove Sam Altman and Brockman from their positions and return over $130 billion to OpenAI’s nonprofit. If OpenAI intends to take the company public at some point later this year, then a positive ruling would have implications on those intentions as well.

The stolen charity is being fought by Sam Altman!

Altman was quick to respond to Musk’s accusations on the stand. He said it almost feels like it’s hard to even grok the concept of the framing of OpenAI stealing a charity. He elaborated that realistically, in order to obtain the massive funding required for development of beneficial and safe AI, it would need to be turned into a for-profit business. Even early on, according to Sam Altman, Musk suggested that he ought to eventually control a majority interest in any OpenAI related for-profit entity or potentially merge it with Tesla, which implied that safety wasn’t actually Musk’s top concern from the beginning.

The Book of No Single Person Should Control AGI

Alman also provided some insight into Musk’s ambition regarding artificial general intelligence (AGI) – the theoretical future point at which AI’s abilities are equivalent to a human in every way. Altman said that the original thesis behind OpenAI was that AGI should not be owned by any one company, and that also, in his opinion.

Musk is not the best person to lead a super-advanced AI lab anyway. “(Musk) stepped down from the board of OpenAI for that reason, even though I think it probably makes sense for him to have some involvement with safety-related things if you’re going to build something as powerful as what he wanted to build with Neuralink,” Altman said. “He left our board recently and I actually think it’s helped (with) morale; my guess was his head wasn’t completely in this company.”

Are You Completely Trustworthy?

Molo cross-examined Altman by starting to ask him directly and sharply if he was “completely trustworthy,” asked him about his relationship with the company.

Altman responded that he was a “business man,” who was “honest and trustworthy” and while agreeing that there were times in his life that he must not have been honest and trustworthy. At this point Molo continued by stating that according to the testimonies of the past OpenAI board members as well as executives Altman was in fact “dishonest” person who conducted a “culture of deception” with OpenAI. Altman not only answered the claims, but also admitted, that there are only a few exact accusations which was presented to him.

The Painful 2023 Ouster

The firing of Altman as the CEO in 2023 was another line of questioning that he reflected on during the inquiry. “It was an incredible betrayal,” he responded, “and it was very public and very painful as well.” At the sight of hindsight if was aware how challenging the ordeal would be, he would reconsider his decision,” said, but admitted that apart from his family, OpenAI is the next important thing in his life.

Questions about Altman’s Outside Financial Interests

Musk’s lawyers also quizzed Altman over his financial interests in other companies – including payments company Stripe, and chip maker Cerebras and fusion energy company Helion, both of which he invests heavily in – in an attempt to raise doubt that Altman acted soley with the “best interest of the company” ahead of any personal financial motivation.

In his latest statement, Musk revealed that he is driven by competition with OpenAI.

OpenAI’s lawyers have said repeatedly throughout the case that safety – far from being ‘the real reason’ for the lawsuit, as Musk has insinuated – really comes down to “personal grievance” and “competitive rivalry”. They point out that Musk is the CEO of a competing AI company, ‘xAI’, which has sought to hire away OpenAI employees on several occasions since he left the non-profit. Sam Altman revealed on the stand that OpenAI now believes that xAI is in fact a clone of his organisation.

Full cleanliness is impossible to imagine, so it is interesting to know how the things are shown from that side.

Both of them have not been able to articulate a perfect, reassuring narrative about how AI governance and ethics around creating powerful technology. The testimony has shown that sometimes, both Sam Altman and Musk have been motivated by money, power or control. Neither has had the moral high-ground entirely.

What Comes Next?

Closing arguments are scheduled in court for Thursday and the advisory jury’s verdict is anticipated as soon as next week, before Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers. Beyond OpenAI, the implications of the ruling could reach into the entire AI industry and touch on the future of how AI companies are regulated.

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