Altman says Musk wanted control of OpenAI, even after death

Sam Altman told a federal jury that Elon Musk repeatedly sought control of OpenAI, including a plan that could pass control to his children.

Sam Altman told a federal jury in Oakland, California, that Elon Musk repeatedly tried to take control of OpenAI and even suggested that control could pass to his children after his death.

The testimony goes to the center of a high-stakes dispute between two of OpenAI’s co-founders. Musk is suing Altman, accusing him of having “looted a charity” because OpenAI began as a nonprofit before becoming the company behind ChatGPT.

Altman, OpenAI’s chief executive, gave a different account Tuesday. He said Musk had supported the idea of OpenAI becoming a for-profit business and wanted to control it over the long term.

“A particularly hair-raising moment was when my cofounders asked, ‘If you have control, what happens when you die?’ He said something like ‘...maybe it should pass to my children,’” Altman told the jury, according to the captured report.

The claim, if accepted by jurors, could undercut Musk’s argument that OpenAI’s later business structure betrayed its founding mission. Altman’s testimony instead frames Musk as someone who was not only open to a for-profit path, but interested in consolidating authority over the organization himself.

Musk’s side has also pressed questions about Altman’s leadership and the company’s relationship with Microsoft. In a separate reported development from the case, Musk’s lawyer argued that Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella played a role in helping Altman return to OpenAI after he was briefly fired in 2023.

The record available from the supplied sources does not include Musk’s full response to Altman’s latest testimony. For now, the case turns on competing accounts of OpenAI’s founding purpose, its shift toward a profit-driven structure and who sought power over one of the most influential companies in artificial intelligence.