---
title: "OpenAI’s Sam Altman takes the stand to defend against Elon Musk allegations"
type: "News"
locale: "en"
url: "https://longbridge.com/en/news/286131061.md"
description: "OpenAI CEO Sam Altman testified in a trial against co-founder Elon Musk, who alleges that Altman and other executives are misappropriating charity funds. Altman refuted these claims, stating that OpenAI has evolved into a significant charity despite creating a for-profit arm. The lawsuit, initiated by Musk in 2024, accuses Altman and President Greg Brockman of self-enrichment, while they argue it is a competitive harassment following Musk's launch of his AI startup, xAI. The trial is nearing its conclusion with closing statements expected soon."
datetime: "2026-05-12T16:12:35.000Z"
locales:
  - [zh-CN](https://longbridge.com/zh-CN/news/286131061.md)
  - [en](https://longbridge.com/en/news/286131061.md)
  - [zh-HK](https://longbridge.com/zh-HK/news/286131061.md)
---

# OpenAI’s Sam Altman takes the stand to defend against Elon Musk allegations

OAKLAND, 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 cofounded more than a decade ago. 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.” Altman, 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 cofounder, OpenAI President Greg Brockman, in 2024, alleging that they are enriching themselves at the expense of what he says was supposed to be a charity. Altman and Brockman have countered that the lawsuit is harassment of a competitor after Musk created his own artificial intelligence startup, xAI, in 2023. They say OpenAI is still controlled by a nonprofit foundation board and that Musk agreed with them about the need to establish a for-profit arm to raise money from outside investors. Altman could only watch from the courtroom audience for the first two weeks of the trial as Musk, the plaintiff, put on his case.

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