Musk testimony dominated first week Musk v. Altman. 'You can't just steal a charity'

Elon Musk arrives to court at the Ronald V. Dellums Federal Building on April 30, 2026 in Oakland, California. Benjamin Fanjoy | A week into the Musk v. Altman trial, which features two towering figures in the tech industry facing off in a case that could have major implications for OpenAI, the plaintiff has made his central message clear to the jury. "You can't just steal a charity," Elon Musk , the world's richest person, said repeatedly during his time on the stand at a federal courthouse in Oakland, California. Musk's testimony was the centerpiece of the trial's first week. It comes two years after the Tesla and SpaceX CEO first sued OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Greg Brockman, the company's president, alleging they went back on their promises to keep the artificial intelligence startup a nonprofit and to follow its charitable mission. Musk, who helped start OpenAI in 2015 as a nonprofit, claims that the roughly $38 million he donated to the project was used for unauthorized commercial purposes. OpenAI, now valued at over $850 billion by private investors, has called Musk's allegations "baseless." Musk left OpenAI's board in 2018, and five years later started xAI as a competitor, before merging that business with SpaceX in February. The trial began Monday with the seating of a nine-person jury . Attorneys for both parties presented opening arguments on Tuesday. The main event was Musk's testimony , which stretched over the course of three days, wrapping up on Thursday. …