The fate of OpenAI’s $1tn IPO will be decided in an Oakland jury room

{"text":[[{"start":11.5,"text":"Sam Altman sat in the front row through days of testimony in his legal battle with Elon Musk, a decision that highlighted the stakes in a case that could clear OpenAI’s way to a $1tn IPO or see its chief executive thrown out in disgrace. "}],[{"start":26.85,"text":"Nine jurors could issue a verdict as soon as Monday, leaving Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers to decide whether to reverse OpenAI’s for-profit restructuring, award $134bn in damages or unseat Altman and co-founder Greg Brockman."}],[{"start":44.3,"text":"Having navigated rounds of tortuous restructuring negotiations with its largest shareholder Microsoft and the abortive removal of Altman as CEO, victory over Musk would remove a final hurdle to OpenAI’s plans to go public in the next year at a valuation of $1tn or more."}],[{"start":61.9,"text":"Defeat would leave the start-up’s future in doubt."}],[{"start":65.4,"text":"“There are serious legal issues at stake” about OpenAI’s mission and the public good, said Jill Horwitz, a professor at the Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law."}],[{"start":75.35000000000001,"text":"But, she added, “the spectacle of these two multibillionaires fighting about power and money has distorted and obscured what the law is meant to care about here, which is the public interest”."}],[{"start":87.00000000000001,"text":"Claims about Musk’s megalomania, Altman’s integrity and Brockman’s greed have been under scrutiny alongside the documents and legal obligations that stemmed from OpenAI’s creation in 2015."}],[{"start":99.90000000000002,"text":"Closing his case on Thursday after three weeks of evidence, Musk’s lawyer Steven Molo attacked Brockman’s $30bn personal stake in OpenAI, calling him “a senior insider who never provided any funding at all”. He blasted Altman as “a CEO who was involved in transactions which are admittedly conflicted”."}],[{"start":121.60000000000002,"text":"Altman owns stakes worth well over $2bn in companies that have done business with OpenAI, it emerged during the trial. The Republican-led House oversight committee launched a probe into Altman’s potential conflicts this week. "}],[{"start":null,"text":"

"}],[{"start":135.3,"text":"“Sam Altman’s credibility is directly at issue in this case . . . If you cannot trust him, if you don’t believe him, they can’t win. It’s that simple,” Molo told the jury. "}],[{"start":146,"text":"OpenAI’s lawyers said Musk’s case was motivated by envy and pique. He left its board in 2018 and predicted the start-up had a “0%” chance of success without him — only to be humiliated by ChatGPT’s meteoric success. OpenAI is now valued at $852bn, and Musk’s own xAI lab has failed to catch up."}],[{"start":170,"text":"Musk’s argument could be summed up as: “Elon, Elon, Elon, it was all me,” said William Savitt, attorney for OpenAI."}],[{"start":179.15,"text":"“Musk may have the Midas touch in some areas, but not in AI . . . To succeed in AI, as it turns out, all Mr Musk can do is come to court,” he added."}],[{"start":189.55,"text":"OpenAI’s defence also focused on Musk’s willingness to see OpenAI become a for-profit, provided he could take control. At one point, Musk suggested that it should be absorbed into his carmaker Tesla. "}],[{"start":202,"text":"His efforts to win over the other co-founders extended to giving them Teslas worth $262,400. "}],[{"start":210.5,"text":"“At least we’re getting our Teslas! Will a model 3 make you be willing to accept massively unfavorable terms?” OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever texted Brockman in August 2017, as Musk pushed for control of the company. "}],[{"start":226.55,"text":"On the day Musk ultimately left OpenAI, the company held an all-hands meeting. Musk was questioned by Joshua Achiam, now OpenAI’s chief futurist, over his “reckless” proposals that could imperil AI safety. "}],[{"start":239.8,"text":"Musk shot back, calling him a “jackass”, Achiam testified on Wednesday. "}],[{"start":244.70000000000002,"text":"The court was shown a golden statue of half of a jackass gifted to Achiam by other employees, including Dario Amodei, who now runs rival AI lab Anthropic, after the altercation. It is inscribed with “never stop being a jackass for safety”."}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":261.8,"text":"Amodei has been perhaps the greatest beneficiary of a case that has preoccupied and damaged his rivals. During the trial, Anthropic signed a multibillion-dollar data centre deal with Musk’s SpaceX and agreed terms to raise $30bn at a $900bn valuation."}],[{"start":278.25,"text":"“Musk did a good job of tarnishing Altman, but it is hard to do worse than Musk in a reputational sense,” said Stavros Gadinis, professor of law at the University of California, Berkeley. "}],[{"start":290.15,"text":"Outside the courthouse, a small group of protesters gathered each day with placards and props to express their fears about AI and distaste for its masters. "}],[{"start":300.65,"text":"One man wearing a cardboard Tesla wore a Musk mask and brandished an oversized bag of drugs, while an inflatable version of the billionaire gave repeated Nazi salutes. Another sign read simply: “Everyone sucks here.”"}],[{"start":314.79999999999995,"text":"Beyond the reputational battle, Musk’s case rests on whether his decision to donate $38mn as well as his time and reputation to OpenAI between 2015 and 2018 created a charitable trust, which was then breached by the start-up’s conversion to a for-profit."}],[{"start":333.4,"text":"He claims Microsoft, which stepped in to fund OpenAI after its split with Musk, aided and abetted OpenAI’s breach of contract. "}],[{"start":342.34999999999997,"text":"The software giant has invested $13bn directly into OpenAI and has poured more than $100bn into infrastructure and computing resources to serve the start-up, according to testimony."}],[{"start":356.09999999999997,"text":"Microsoft’s lawyers have rubbished that claim, saying there was no such contract and playing down the company’s influence over the start-up. "}],[{"start":363.7,"text":"Even if the jury sides with Musk, Gadinis said it was unlikely that Gonzalez Rogers would take extreme action, such as removing Altman and Brockman or reversing OpenAI’s restructure, not least because she would be responsible for finding a new leader and supervising the transition. "}],[{"start":381.15,"text":"The judge herself said in March that Musk’s damages claim rested on “numbers out of the air”. "}],[{"start":386.25,"text":"Gadinis added that Musk’s early effort “to gain control or merge with Tesla undermines his core argument”."}],[{"start":393.25,"text":"When he filed his suit in 2024, Musk said advanced AI was “perhaps the greatest existential threat we face today” and cautioned against it falling into the hands of those who see it “as a source of profit and power”."}],[{"start":407.05,"text":"But as the legal battle over the control of OpenAI and its powerful technology drew to a close this week, the world’s richest man travelled to Beijing with President Donald Trump aboard Air Force One and posed for a selfie with a Chinese billionaire."}],[{"start":422.40000000000003,"text":"Savitt seized on the symbolism of Musk’s absence as he concluded a trial where optics have often superseded substance. “Mr Musk isn’t here today. My clients are,” he said."}],[{"start":444.55,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1779097826_3572.mp3"}