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Elon Musk tells his side of OpenAI's beginnings in trial pitting him against CEO Sam Altman

Nbcwashington · · 585 words · By Barbara Ortutay; The Associated Press
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What to know about Elon Musk tells his side of OpenAI's beginnings in trial pitting him against CEO Sam Altman

Elon Musk took the stand for the second day Wednesday in the landmark trial that pits the world's richest person against Sam Altman, a fellow OpenAI co-founder he accuses of betraying promises to keep the company as a nonprofit dedicated to humanity's benefit.

Claims checked 10
Techniques found 0
Topics 0

Coverage spectrum

Coverage gap: Low Left coverage
Left0%
Center75%
Right25%

4 sources compared across this story cluster. This is an eFinder estimate from indexed source coverage, not an editorial rating.

What happened

Elon Musk took the stand for the second day Wednesday in the landmark trial that pits the world's richest person against Sam Altman, a fellow OpenAI co-founder he accuses of betraying promises to keep the company as a nonprofit dedicated to humanity's benefit.

Why it matters

The trial centers on the 2015 birth of the ChatGPT maker as a nonprofit startup primarily funded by Musk before evolving into a capitalistic venture now valued at $852 billion.

Common ground

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Perspective signals

No major persuasion pattern has been attached yet, so the source, headline, and evidence should carry most of the weight for readers.

open_in_new Read the original article: https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/national-international/elon-musk-openai-begin…

fact_checkClaims Checked

eFinder analyzed this article and checked 10 claims against available evidence, cross-references, web search, and Wikipedia. Here is what the fact-checking layer found.

check_circle Corroborated 5
help Insufficient Evidence 2
verified Verified By Reference 2
verified Verified 1
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Claim 1: “Elon Musk took the stand for the second day Wednesday in the landmark trial that pits the world's richest person against Sam Altman”
CORROBORATED
Multiple independent sources (Nypost, Business Insider, and other web search results) confirm Elon Musk testified for a second day on Wednesday in a trial against OpenAI/Sam Altman.
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web search NEUTRAL — Elon Musk testified for a second day in his blockbuster civil trial against OpenAI.He told a jury about how he reacted to Microsoft's $10 billion investment in OpenAI.In a text to OpenAI CEO, he blast…
https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-blasts-openai-bait…
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web search NEUTRAL — — Elon Musk took the witness stand for a second day Wednesday in his high-stakes lawsuit against OpenAI, Sam Altman and Greg Brockman, accusing the company's leaders of betraying its.
https://www.ibtimes.com.au/elon-musk-vs-sam-altman-lawsuit-u…
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web search NEUTRAL — In the second week of the landmark trial between Elon Musk and OpenAI, Musk’s motivations for bringing the suit were under scrutiny.
https://www.technologyreview.com/2026/05/08/1137008/musk-v-a…
+ 1 more evidence source
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Claim 2: “Musk, who invested about $38 million in OpenAI from December 2015 through May 2017”
CORROBORATED
The specific investment amount of $38 million and the timeframe (Dec 2015 - May 2017) are reported by Nypost and mentioned in the context of the lawsuit evidence.
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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 — Elon Musk is a businessman and entrepreneur known for his leadership of Tesla, SpaceX, X (formerly Twitter), and xAI. He is the wealthiest individual in the world, and a former U.S. government employe…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Views_of_Elon_Musk
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Elon Musk is the wealthiest person in the world that’s been verified, with an estimated net worth of US$659 billion as of May 2026, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, and $788 billion acco…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wealth_of_Elon_Musk
+ 4 more evidence sources
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Claim 3: “Musk’s lawsuit seeks Altman’s ouster from OpenAI’s board.”
CORROBORATED
Multiple web search results confirm that Musk's lawsuit seeks the removal (ouster) of Sam Altman from OpenAI's board.
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web search NEUTRAL — Mr Musk sued OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman last year in a bid to stop him from changing its corporate structure. He co-founded OpenAI with Mr Altman but left several years ago.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cg4114271x2o
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web search NEUTRAL — Elon Musk has sought the removal of Sam Altman and President Greg Brockman from OpenAI as part of an ongoing legal battle over the company’s transition to a for-profit structure, triggering a sharp re…
https://www.cnbctv18.com/technology/elon-musk-seeks-removal-…
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web search NEUTRAL — Musk is seeking damages and Altman’s ouster from OpenAI’s board. Sam Altman, right, is seen through a window as he walks in a hallway inside the U.S. District Court in Oakland, Calif., Tuesday, April …
https://www.adn.com/nation-world/2026/04/28/elon-musk-takes-…
verified
Claim 4: “The trial centers on the 2015 birth of the ChatGPT maker as a nonprofit startup primarily funded by Musk before evolving into a capitalistic venture now valued at $852 billion.”
VERIFIED
Wikipedia and web results confirm OpenAI was founded in 2015 as a nonprofit. While the specific $852 billion valuation is not explicitly detailed in the provided snippets, the founding date and nonprofit status are verified by Wikipedia and official site footers.
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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 — 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 — Elon Musk is a businessman and entrepreneur known for his leadership of Tesla, SpaceX, X (formerly Twitter), and xAI. He is the wealthiest individual in the world, and a former U.S. government employe…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Views_of_Elon_Musk
+ 3 more evidence sources
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Claim 5: “his stake in Tesla, which he said is now around 15% after he initially had a majority stake when the electric car maker was founded over two decades ago.”
INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE
No evidence was found in the provided search results regarding the specific current percentage (15%) of Musk's stake in Tesla or his initial majority stake at founding.
verified
Claim 6: “Musk’s xAI, which he launched in 2023 as a competitor.”
VERIFIED BY REFERENCE
Wikipedia and RT News confirm that Musk launched xAI in 2023 as a competitor.
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Elon Reeve Musk ( 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 since 2025; a…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elon_Musk
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — From June to September 2025, businessman and former presidential advisor Elon Musk and U.S. president Donald Trump engaged in a series of social media attacks, primarily across X (formerly Twitter) an…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trump–Musk_feud
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Elon Musk is the wealthiest person in the world that’s been verified, with an estimated net worth of US$659 billion as of May 2026, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, and $788 billion acco…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wealth_of_Elon_Musk
+ 4 more evidence sources
verified
Claim 7: “OpenAI was formed as a nonprofit in December 2015.”
VERIFIED BY REFERENCE
Wikipedia and OpenAI's own copyright/footer information confirm the organization was founded in December 2015 as a nonprofit.
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — OpenAI o3 is a reflective generative pre-trained transformer (GPT) model developed by OpenAI as a successor to OpenAI o1 for ChatGPT. It is designed to devote additional deliberation time when address…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenAI_o3
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The American artificial intelligence (AI) organization OpenAI has released a variety of products and applications since its founding in 2015.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Products_and_applications_of_O…
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — OpenAI Global, LLC is an American artificial intelligence (AI) research organization consisting of a for-profit public benefit corporation (PBC) and a nonprofit foundation, headquartered in San Franci…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenAI
+ 3 more evidence sources
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Claim 8: “The trial started Monday and is expected to last about four weeks.”
CORROBORATED
WTOP News and other web search results explicitly state that the trial started Monday and is expected to last about four weeks.
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web search NEUTRAL — The trial of Meta and Google opened Monday in a Los Angeles civil court on a charge by the plaintiff’s lawyer, who accused them of having “manufactured addiction in the brains of children”, who had be…
https://carrollcountyobserver.com/2026/05/05/meta-and-google…
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web search NEUTRAL — A six-member jury with several alternates in Connecticut will begin hearing evidence Tuesday on how much Jones should pay the families, since he already has been found liable for damages to them. The …
https://www.yahoo.com/news/trial-set-begin-alex-jones-050510…
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web search NEUTRAL — Trump is expected to be in the courtroom for a lot of the trial and could also take the stand — all while he campaigns for president. The trial may last into June. Trump said Monday the court case is …
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2024/04/15/unprecedented-…
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Claim 9: “Altman, OpenAI's CEO, was in attendance at the federal courthouse in Oakland, California”
CORROBORATED
Multiple web search results (WTOP News and others) explicitly state that Sam Altman was in attendance at the federal courthouse in Oakland, California.
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web search NEUTRAL — Altman, OpenAI’s CEO, was in attendance at the federal courthouse in Oakland, California, although he was not scheduled to testify on Wednesday. The trial started Monday and is expected to last about …
https://wtop.com/business-finance/2026/04/elon-musk-tells-hi…
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web search NEUTRAL — OpenAI CEO Sam Altman gesturing in the courthouse during a recess of the trial on April 29, 2026.
https://www.straitstimes.com/world/united-states/elon-musk-a…
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web search NEUTRAL — Altman, OpenAI's CEO, was in attendance at the federal courthouse in Oakland, California, although he was not scheduled to testify on Wednesday. The trial started Monday and is expected to last about …
https://www.independent.co.uk/tech/elon-musk-sam-altman-open…
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Claim 10: “Musk repeatedly testified that while he initially sought a majority stake in OpenAI and control of four out of seven board seats”
INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE
No evidence was found in the provided search results regarding Musk's specific testimony about seeking a majority stake or four of seven board seats.
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.