Altman Tells Jury Musk Wanted OpenAI Passed to His Children

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told a federal jury Tuesday that Elon Musk sought sweeping, permanent control of the AI company, BBC Business reported. Among the most startling claims, Altman said Musk floated the idea of OpenAI control passing to his children upon his death.

Dynastic Ambitions and a Contested Founding

Altman, testifying at a federal courthouse in Oakland, California, described an exchange with co-founders where Musk was asked what would happen to OpenAI if he died. According to Altman, Musk responded that leadership might pass to his children. Altman called it a “hair-raising moment” that crystallised his discomfort with Musk’s demands.

Beyond succession, Musk reportedly pushed for additional board seats, the chief executive role, and even a proposal to fold OpenAI into Tesla as a wholly owned subsidiary. Altman said the underlying driver was a desire to raise money faster by restructuring OpenAI into a conventional for-profit company, with Musk positioning himself as indispensable to that effort. Musk reportedly argued his public profile alone could instantly generate significant financial interest in the organisation.

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Background: A Founder Who Walked Away

Musk was among OpenAI’s original backers when it launched as a non-profit in 2015. He contributed roughly $5 million per quarter before departing in early 2018 after co-founders declined his demands for control. Altman recalled a pointed email from Musk at the time, in which Musk declared OpenAI had no realistic chance of success without him.

When OpenAI formed its first for-profit subsidiary in 2019, Altman said he offered Musk the chance to invest. Musk declined, stating he would no longer back any venture he did not personally control. Musk has since launched his own AI company, xAI, and is now suing OpenAI, alleging it abandoned its charitable mission in favour of profit.

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What Altman Said He Feared Most

Altman told the jury that he and co-founders Greg Brockman and Ilya Sutskever agreed that handing any single individual control over OpenAI was fundamentally at odds with the company’s purpose. The core concern, Altman said, centred on artificial general intelligence, broadly understood as AI capable of outperforming humans across most tasks. Concentrating control of that technology in one person’s hands, he said, was precisely the outcome OpenAI was built to prevent.

The trial is ongoing.

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