Sam Altman testifies on Musk’s push for control at OpenAI

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told jurors on May 12 that he was “extremely uncomfortable” with Elon Musk’s 2017 push to control a proposed for-profit unit at OpenAI.

Altman said Musk would not agree in writing to limit that control during discussions over the restructuring.

He said Musk suggested control could pass to his children if he died.

He also said Musk’s proposed equity split did not reflect the work of other co-founders including Greg Brockman and Ilya Sutskever.

Musk, an OpenAI co-founder who later launched xAI, claims Altman and Brockman abandoned OpenAI’s nonprofit mission.

He is seeking tens of billions of dollars in damages plus the reversal of OpenAI’s for-profit conversion completed in October.

🔗 Source: Bloomberg

🧠 Food for thought

Implications, context, and why it matters.

OpenAI is loosening Microsoft’s exclusive hold during the trial

The case centers on OpenAI’s founding aims, yet the company is also working to stand more on its own instead of leaning on Microsoft 1.
An updated agreement lets OpenAI sell through any cloud provider and ends Microsoft’s exclusive rights to OpenAI’s intellectual property and models. Microsoft Azure, Microsoft’s cloud computing platform, still serves as OpenAI’s main cloud provider and gets first access to new products 2.
OpenAI called the Microsoft deal a limit on reaching enterprise customers in an internal memo 1. That same memo said demand tied to OpenAI’s Amazon partnership, where Amazon agreed to invest up to $50 billion, was “staggering” 1.
Musk’s fight over OpenAI’s move to a for-profit structure also fits with OpenAI’s effort to gain room to operate across the cloud market, though Musk’s side says profit drove the change 3.

The ruling could affect how directly AI labs take on software companies

If OpenAI wins, it would keep its structure and planned conversion on track. That could speed fears of a “software as a service (SaaS)-pocalypse,” a shorthand term for concern that AI companies could upend software vendors that sell SaaS 4.
The decision could also sway OpenAI’s path toward a possible $1 trillion initial public offering (IPO). That money could help it compete more directly with established software companies 3.