Altman Testifies: Musk Mulled Handing OpenAI to His Children Amidst Lawsuit

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently took the stand to defend the company against a lawsuit filed by co-founder Elon Musk, which challenges OpenAI's corporate structure. During his testimony, Altman addressed Musk's contentious allegation that OpenAI's other founders "stole a charity" when they established a for-profit subsidiary to commercialize products derived from their advanced AI models. Altman expressed his difficulty comprehending such a framing, asserting, "We created one of the largest charities in the world. This foundation is doing incredible work and will do much more." Musk's legal team has highlighted that OpenAI's foundation, now boasting assets around $200 billion, operated without full-time employees until early this year. OpenAI board chair Bret Taylor clarified that this was due to the complexities of converting company equity into cash, a process successfully completed with the organization's 2025 restructuring. The core of Musk's legal challenge questions whether OpenAI's original commitment to safety has been compromised as its commercial influence expanded. However, Altman countered this by recalling a pivotal period in 2017 when founders debated funding strategies for their AI models. He revealed that Musk's "specific plans on safety made me worry." Altman recounted a particularly "hair-raising moment" during this debate when Musk, asked about the fate of a hypothetical for-profit OpenAI if he were to die while in control, reportedly suggested, "Maybe OpenAI should pass to my children." This proposal deeply troubled Altman, as OpenAI was fundamentally dedicated to preventing advanced AI from falling under the sole control of a single individual, a principle he valued given his experience with startup founders' reluctance to cede control. Altman further testified that Musk's management approach, while potentially effective in engineering and manufacturing sectors, proved unsuitable for OpenAI's research-driven environment. He stated, "I don't think Mr. Musk understood how to run a good research lab," elaborating on how Musk's tactics demotivated key researchers. Altman specifically cited an instance where Musk demanded a "stack rank" of researchers and their accomplishments, intending to "take a chainsaw through a bunch," an action that inflicted significant long-term damage on the organization's culture. Altman positioned himself as a defender of the "sweat equity" contributed by fellow co-founders Greg Brockman and Ilya Sutskever, who were effectively managing OpenAI while both Musk and Altman held other commitments. Following the unresolved clash over control and vision, Musk ultimately departed OpenAI's board and subsequently launched competing AI initiatives, including xAI and projects within Tesla. Despite this, Altman maintained communication with Musk, providing updates on OpenAI's progress and occasionally seeking his funding and advice, even noting a "good vibes meeting" in 2018 regarding a Microsoft investment, where Musk reportedly spent time sharing memes.