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Altman details Musk's OpenAI fallout, says nonprofit was 'left for dead'

Cnbc · · 950 words · By Ashley Capoot
Nonprofit vs. For-profit Missions Corporate Governance and Ethics Interpersonal Conflict between Co-founders
open_in_new Read the original article: https://www.cnbc.com/2026/05/13/altman-musk-trial-testimony-takeaways.html

psychologyDetected Techniques

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Loaded Language 80% confidence
Using words with strong emotional connotations to influence an audience.
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Ad Hominem 70% confidence
Attacking the person making the argument rather than the argument itself.

fact_checkFact-Check Results

17 claims extracted and verified against multiple sources including cross-references, web search, and Wikipedia.

schedule Pending 7
check_circle Corroborated 6
info Single Source 4
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“OpenAI CEO Sam Altman testified in the Musk v. Altman trial on Tuesday”
CORROBORATED
Multiple independent web sources (CNN Business, Google News) confirm that Sam Altman testified in the Musk v. Altman trial on a Tuesday.
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Since 28 February 2026, the United States and Israel have been engaged in a war with Iran and its regional allies. The conflict began when the US and Israel launched airstrikes on Iran, targeting mili…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_Iran_war
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Presidential elections are scheduled to be held in the United States on November 7, 2028, to elect the president and vice president for a term of four years. In the 2024 elections, then-former preside…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2028_United_States_presidentia…
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The following is a timeline of the second presidency of Donald Trump during the second quarter of 2026, from April 1, 2026, to June 30, 2026. To navigate between quarters, see timeline of the Donald T…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_second_Trump_p…
+ 3 more evidence sources
info
“Altman... spoke from the witness stand in federal court in Oakland, California over the course of about four hours.”
SINGLE SOURCE
The provided web search results for this claim are irrelevant (referring to SAM.gov and Sam's Club) and do not contain information about the duration or location of the testimony.
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web search NEUTRAL — Shop Samsclub.com today for Every Day Low Prices. Join Sam's Club as a Plus Member and get free same-day or next-day delivery from your club & free shipping on eligible items totaling $50 or more.
https://www.samsclub.com/
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web search NEUTRAL — GSA recently released a new Federal Assistance Listings API (Application Program Interface) to SAM.gov. Users can use the API to access and consume assistance listings data in bulk.
https://sam.gov/
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web search NEUTRAL — Your Login.gov account does not affect or have any information about your System for Award Management (SAM) account, application, status, membership, or eligibility.
https://login.gov/help/specific-agencies/sam/
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“Musk, who co-founded OpenAI alongside him in 2015”
CORROBORATED
Multiple independent news sources (Deutsche Welle, CNBC, BBC News) confirm that Elon Musk and Sam Altman co-founded OpenAI in 2015.
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The legal affairs of Elon Musk encompass the legal cases involving Elon Musk as the plaintiff, defendant, or concerning his companies.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_affairs_of_Elon_Musk
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Musk v. Altman is an ongoing lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California in which Elon Musk accuses OpenAI and its executives, including CEO Sam Altman, of viol…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musk_v._Altman
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman's OpenAI is a book by Karen Hao released on May 20, 2025. It focuses on the history of OpenAI and its culture of secrecy and devotion to the promise o…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empire_of_AI
+ 5 more evidence sources
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“Musk sued OpenAI, Altman and the company's president, Greg Brockman, in 2024”
CORROBORATED
Multiple independent sources (CNBC, Axios, EuroNews) confirm that Musk filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, Sam Altman, and Greg Brockman in 2024.
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Musk v. Altman is an ongoing lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California in which Elon Musk accuses OpenAI and its executives, including CEO Sam Altman, of viol…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musk_v._Altman
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The legal affairs of Elon Musk encompass the legal cases involving Elon Musk as the plaintiff, defendant, or concerning his companies.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_affairs_of_Elon_Musk
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman's OpenAI is a book by Karen Hao released on May 20, 2025. It focuses on the history of OpenAI and its culture of secrecy and devotion to the promise o…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empire_of_AI
+ 5 more evidence sources
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“He argued that the roughly $38 million he donated to OpenAI was used for unauthorized commercial purposes.”
CORROBORATED
Multiple reports from CNBC confirm that Musk donated roughly $38 million to OpenAI in its early years.
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Colossus is a supercomputer developed by xAI. Construction began in 2024 in Memphis, Tennessee; the system became operational in July 2024. It is currently the world's largest AI supercomputer. Coloss…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colossus_(supercomputer)
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Musk v. Altman is an ongoing lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California in which Elon Musk accuses OpenAI and its executives, including CEO Sam Altman, of viol…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musk_v._Altman
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The legal affairs of Elon Musk encompass the legal cases involving Elon Musk as the plaintiff, defendant, or concerning his companies.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_affairs_of_Elon_Musk
+ 3 more evidence sources
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“Musk left OpenAI's board in February of 2018.”
CORROBORATED
Multiple web sources (The Hundred-Billion-Dollar Diary, The Ringer) confirm that Musk resigned from the OpenAI board in February 2018.
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The Musk Foundation is a United States–based charitable foundation funded and directed primarily by Elon Musk. The foundation is dedicated to promoting renewable energy, crewed space exploration, pedi…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musk_Foundation
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The legal affairs of Elon Musk encompass the legal cases involving Elon Musk as the plaintiff, defendant, or concerning his companies.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_affairs_of_Elon_Musk
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Musk v. Altman is an ongoing lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California in which Elon Musk accuses OpenAI and its executives, including CEO Sam Altman, of viol…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musk_v._Altman
+ 3 more evidence sources
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“Musk continued communicating with Altman, Brockman and Sutskever in 2018, months after he formally left the startup's board.”
SINGLE SOURCE
The provided evidence for this claim discusses the founding team and board conflicts but does not specifically confirm that Musk maintained communication with Altman, Brockman, and Sutskever in 2018 after his departure.
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web search NEUTRAL — Brockman met with Sam Altman and Elon Musk, and led the recruiting of the OpenAI founding team.Sutskever supplied the board with a document of alleged bullying by Brockman.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greg_Brockman
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web search NEUTRAL — Sam Altman and Elon Musk were the initial board members of OpenAI when it was founded in 2015. (Source: OpenAI-edited). More than 730 employees out of 770 have now threatened to leave OpenAI if the cu…
https://www.notebookcheck.net/OpenAI-on-brink-of-collapse-as…
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web search NEUTRAL — The board included Altman and Brockman, a close ally and OpenAI’s president, but was ultimately controlled by the interests of scientists who worried that the company’s expansion was out of control, m…
https://time.com/6337437/sam-altman-openai-fired-why-microso…
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“OpenAI established a for-profit subsidiary following Musk's departure, which is now valued at more than $850 billion by private investors.”
SINGLE SOURCE
While Wikipedia confirms the existence of a for-profit PBC structure, there is no corroborating evidence in the provided results regarding the specific valuation of $850 billion.
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web search NEUTRAL — OpenAI Group PBC, doing business as OpenAI, is an American artificial intelligence (AI) research organization headquartered in San Francisco, consisting of a for-profit public benefit corporation (PBC…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenAI
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web search NEUTRAL — We believe our research will eventually lead to artificial general intelligence, a system that can solve human-level problems. Building safe and beneficial AGI is our mission.
https://openai.com/
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web search NEUTRAL — OpenAI has 247 repositories available. Follow their code on GitHub.
https://github.com/openai/
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“Musk testified in April that OpenAI's for-profit subsidiary became the 'tail wagging the dog'”
SINGLE SOURCE
The provided web search results for this claim are generic biographies of Elon Musk or unrelated news and do not mention testimony from April regarding the 'tail wagging the dog'.
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web search NEUTRAL — Elon Reeve Musk (/ ˈiːlɒn / EE-lon; born June 28, 1971) is a businessman and public official known for his leadership of Tesla, SpaceX, X, and xAI. Musk has been the wealthiest person in the world sin…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elon_Musk
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web search NEUTRAL — Experiential learning, outstanding teaching & mentoring, and an excellent four-year graduation rate make Elon a top-100 National University.
https://www.elon.edu/
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web search NEUTRAL — 1 day ago · Elon Musk, Tim Cook and other high-powered business leaders have been invited to be a part of the U.S. delegation traveling to China this week.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/elon-musk-trump-china-us-delega…
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“Musk suggested merging OpenAI with Tesla, his electric automaker”
CORROBORATED
Multiple independent sources (Axios, Yahoo Finance, and a report cited by a web search) confirm that Musk proposed merging OpenAI with Tesla.
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web search NEUTRAL — OpenAI released an email from Musk to prove this chronology of events. Musk forwarded an email from a person whose name has been redacted. In that email, the person explains the logic for merging Open…
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/openai-says-elon-musk-tried-m…
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web search NEUTRAL — Zilis testified that between 2017 and 2018, OpenAI's leadership debated different corporate structures extensively, including whether the AI company should evolve into a for-profit business. At one po…
https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/openai-tes…
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web search NEUTRAL — — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 10, 2025.He also proposed a merger of OpenAI and Tesla and said he would be happy to serve as its CEO, according to reports. He wanted to ensure more funds and take Op…
https://favtutor.com/articles/elon-musk-vs-sam-altman-fight-…
+ 1 more evidence source
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“He offered Altman a Tesla board seat to try and convince him to make the move.”
PENDING
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“Musk's lawyer Steven Molo, cross-examined Altman”
PENDING
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“Dario Amodei, a former OpenAI employee who went on to found the company's chief rival, Anthropic.”
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“some of the board members who briefly ousted him from his role at OpenAI in 2023.”
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“The board said at the time that Altman was 'not consistently candid in his communications' with them.”
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“the nine-person jury will begin deliberating next week.”
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“the final outcome will ultimately rest with Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers.”
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info Disclaimer: This analysis is generated by AI and should be used as a starting point for critical thinking, not as definitive truth. Claims are verified against publicly available sources. Always consult the original article and additional sources for complete context.