The Verge · AIMay 13, 2026, 00:05 UTC+8

Sam Altman takes the stand in trial against Elon Musk

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman began testimony in a California federal jury trial involving Elon Musk; the snippet says Musk invested up to $38 million in OpenAI’s early days, and the post does not disclose Altman’s full testimony.

Why it matters: HKR-H/R are strong because Altman vs. Musk is a live OpenAI governance fight; HKR-K is limited to the trial step and $38M figure. No verdict or full testimony is disclosed, so this sits at the lower end of 78-84.

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Altman’s testimony turns OpenAI’s governance fight from PR combat into jury evidence, and the risk sits in the record. The snippet gives one hard number: Musk invested up to $38 million early. It does not give Altman’s full testimony. That is still enough for a courtroom to grind through the old bargain: a 2015 nonprofit mission, now sitting beside commercial licenses, Microsoft dependence, and closed model deployment.

I don’t buy the clean “founder feud” framing. Musk later built xAI, so his incentives are loaded. But OpenAI handed critics the target. The 2023 board crisis already showed that OpenAI’s charter and control rights were not decorative paperwork. If discovery surfaces emails, board notes, or early promises, the damage comes from documents, not from one day of Altman on the stand.

Source: The Verge · AI · theverge.com
Published: May 13, 2026, 00:05 UTC+8 · May 13, 2026