Altman testifies: Musk once proposed merging OpenAI into Tesla, considered running for California governor after being fired

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Musk sued Altman for "plundering the OpenAI non-profit for personal gain," but in his sworn testimony, Altman presented a different version: the person who demanded that control of OpenAI be passed to his children, attempted to merge the company into Tesla, and immediately poached employees after leaving was Musk all along. (Previous coverage: Musk once demanded 51.2% of shares and wanted to be paid in SpaceX stock — OpenAI founding emails fully exposed) (Background: Musk's lawsuit against OpenAI goes to trial: demanding the reversal of the for-profit transition, the removal of Altman, and $134 billion in damages) On the 12th, the case of Musk suing OpenAI and Altman entered a critical trial phase. Altman testified in court for the first time, covering the five days after his firing, Musk’s desire for control, and a moment that left him "creeped out." In November 2023, the OpenAI board fired Altman without any public justification. Within OpenAI, this episode was known as "The Blip," a brief but nearly fatal shock. Altman said in his testimony that he was "very angry and felt deeply misled" at the time. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella proactively offered him a position and extended an invitation to all OpenAI employees. Altman admitted he seriously considered going to Microsoft to do pure AGI research. "I was sure I could make a lot of money and have an easier life at Microsoft," Altman said in his testimony, "but I care about the mission and the people." During those five days, the situation evolved far faster than the outside world knew. Ilya Sutskever, one of the board members who initially voted to support the firing, later publicly expressed regret for participating in the decision; over 700 OpenAI employees signed an open letter threatening to defect to Microsoft en masse if Altman was not reinstated. This employee pushback became the biggest leverage for Altman's return. Ultimately, he chose to go back. Five days later, the OpenAI board rescinded the firing decision, Altman was reinstated, and he led a restructuring of the entire board. The members who had initiated the firing left one after another, replaced by new members with stronger business backgrounds. The purpose of this testimony was clear: in Musk's narrative, Altman is the one who "plundered" the OpenAI non-profit for personal gain. But Altman's version is: faced with a higher-paying, easier option, he chose to stay, and 700 people were willing to stake their careers on him. The core accusation of Musk's lawsuit is that Altman betrayed OpenAI's public interest mission and drove the company's transformation into a for-profit entity for personal gain. The damages sought exceed $134 billion, and he is demanding the reversal of the transition. The logic of this narrative is: OpenAI was founded on a charitable promise, and Altman violated that promise. Altman presented a completely different picture in his testimony. He described how Musk had demanded that OpenAI be merged into Tesla, and when the OpenAI board asked about succession plans, Musk's response was: "Control should be passed to my children." Altman called this moment "particularly creepy" in his testimony. Regarding contributions, Musk stopped donating after contributing about $38 million to the OpenAI non-profit. Altman said he personally donated $3.75 million in cash, plus $17.5 million to related universal basic income research, along with a significant amount of time and energy. He contrasted this by pointing out that co-founders Greg Brockman and Ilya Sutskever worked "every waking moment," while Musk "came to the office once a week or every two weeks." Regarding Musk's management style, Altman described how Musk demanded that researchers be ranked and then "cut a group of people with a chainsaw," a process that demoralized the researchers. "You have to show results or you get fired; that doesn't work for us," Altman said. Regarding the real reason for Musk's departure, Altman's account is: in the second half of 2017, Musk stopped his quarterly donations while launching an AI initiative at Tesla. In early 2018, Musk left the OpenAI board, partly because he was trying to poach OpenAI employees. The nature of the court proceedings allowed Altman to say many things he wouldn't normally say. He publicly admitted for the first time in his testimony that he had seriously considered running for Governor of California. This detail, while not directly related to the OpenAI case, unexpectedly surfaced during cross-examination. The court required him to answer every question under oath, making this trial the most information-dense public statement Altman has ever made. Regardless of the court's ruling, the transcript of this testimony has become the most public dissection of a startup dispute in the history of AI. Two people who once worked together, under oath

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