Musk left OpenAI to enter AI race, Brockman says at trial

Published: 2026-05-05 00:15:07 ET TSLA

Published on 05/05/2026 at 12:15 am EDT

Los Angeles, United States, May 4 (EFE).- Billionaire Elon Musk left OpenAI to compete in the artificial intelligence sector through one of his own companies, OpenAI President Greg Brockman testified Monday in a trial examining whether the maker of ChatGPT violated its founding mission as a nonprofit.

On the fifth day of the high-profile trial in Oakland, California, Brockman took the stand to respond to accusations that he misled the world's richest man, who donated more than $40 million to the OpenAI foundation.

Brockman said he did not deceive SpaceX and Tesla founder Musk. He testified that Musk decided to leave OpenAI because he wanted to pursue his own project aimed at developing artificial general intelligence.

Musk is suing OpenAI, its co-founders Brockman and Sam Altman, and Microsoft for breach of contract and unjust enrichment. He argues they betrayed OpenAI's original mission by prioritizing profit over the public interest.

Brockman's testimony is part of OpenAI's legal strategy, which contends that Musk filed the lawsuit to hinder a direct competitor.

In 2023, Musk founded xAI, an AI firm staffed in part by former employees of companies including OpenAI, DeepMind, Google Research and Microsoft Research.

It also emerged Monday that Musk sent Brockman a message seeking to resolve the legal dispute two days before the trial began.

Musk's chances of winning the case fell Monday. The betting platform Kalshi put his odds of victory at about 36%, the lowest level since the trial started.

Musk testified for three days last week. During his appearance, the Tesla founder said he was "a fool" to have provided the startup with $38 million in what he described as "essentially free" funding to create what would become a company valued at $800 billion.

OpenAI was launched in 2015 as a nonprofit by Altman, Brockman, Musk and other founders to pursue advances in artificial intelligence. In 2019, the organization shifted to a capped-profit structure. EFE