Sam Altman testifies in trial that Elon Musk ‘tried to kill’ OpenAI twice

DEVELOPINGMay. 12, 2026, 4:10 PM UTCTech NewsTech NewsOpenAI’s Sam Altman takes stand to defend against Elon Musk allegationsAltman is defending himself against Musk’s claims that he’s trying to enrich himself at the expense of OpenAI’s original nonprofit mission. Listen to this article with a free account00:0000:00OpenAI CEO Sam Altman arrives at federal court on April 30 in Oakland, Calif. Benjamin Fanjoy / Getty ImagesShareAdd NBC News to GoogleBy David IngramOAKLAND, Calif. — OpenAI CEO Sam Altman took the witness stand Tuesday in a trial that pits him against Elon Musk over the future of the organization they co-founded more than a decade ago.Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.Altman and Musk created OpenAI together as a nonprofit research center in 2015 and years later had a falling out over control and the creation of a for-profit arm that’s behind ChatGPT.Altman told the jury that he did not understand Musk’s allegation that he and other OpenAI executives were stealing from a charity.“It feels difficult to even wrap my head around that framing,” he testified. He acknowledged that the OpenAI board had used “creative ways to keep it going,” by taking outside investment and creating the for-profit arm, but he said the result has been “one of the largest charities in the world.”Elon Musk arrives at the U.S. District Court in Oakland, Calif., on April 28.Godofredo A. Vásquez / AP fileAltman, a 41-year-old St. Louis native and Stanford dropout, is a longtime tech investor who led YCombinator, a startup incubator, before becoming OpenAI CEO in 2019. He burst onto the national business spotlight after the release of ChatGPT in 2022, signaling a new boom era for artificial intelligence.Altman began testifying on the ninth day of the billionaire-filled trial. The jury is scheduled to hear closing statements Thursday. Musk sued Altman and a third co-founder, OpenAI President Greg Brockman, in 2024, allegi...