Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is set to take the stand in Elon Musk's lawsuits against OpenAI, a case that has exposed the turbulent origins of the company behind the popular chatbot ChatGPT. According to a report by news agency AFP, Nadella will be questioned about internal emails revealing how Microsoft's funding helped transform the ChatGPT maker from a nonprofit research lab into a for-profit AI powerhouse. Nadella's testimony comes ahead of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, which is expected later this week.
Elon Musk's Allegations Against OpenAI
Tesla CEO Musk has accused OpenAI of betraying its original nonprofit mission and misusing his founding donations totaling $38 million to build a company now valued at more than $850 billion. Musk is demanding that OpenAI revert to its nonprofit status, a move that could dramatically alter the global AI race against rivals like Anthropic, Google, and Deepseek. On the other hand, OpenAI counters that Musk left the company voluntarily after failing to secure majority control and has become a direct competitor via his own venture, xAI.
Role of Microsoft in Driving OpenAI from Its Nonprofit Roots
According to the AFP report, on May 11, Elon Musk's lawyers are expected to argue that Microsoft knowingly helped OpenAI divert from its nonprofit roots. Recently disclosed emails from January 2018 show Nadella weighing whether to grant OpenAI discounted access to Azure cloud services. "Overall I can't tell what research they are doing and how if shared with us it could help us get ahead," Nadella wrote at the time, noting Musk's claims that OpenAI was close to breakthroughs in AGI. Despite initial skepticism from Microsoft executives, OpenAI soon created a for-profit arm to attract investment. By 2019, Microsoft invested $1 billion and eventually poured in a total of $13 billion, with OpenAI now valued at around $228 billion.
OpenAI's Former CTO Testifies Against Sam Altman
Last week, Mira Murati, OpenAI's former chief technology officer, testified in court that Sam Altman created distrust and confusion among senior leaders. Her testimony came during the ongoing lawsuit filed by Elon Musk against OpenAI, where Musk has accused the company of abandoning its nonprofit mission. Hours after reports about Murati's testimony surfaced online, Musk publicly responded to a social media post calling her one of the key witnesses in the case. Musk wrote, "Mira is cool," followed by a heart emoji, drawing attention online amid the high-profile legal battle.
Murati's recorded testimony was played in a federal court in Oakland, California, during the second week of the trial. Speaking about CEO Sam Altman, she said: "My concern was about Sam saying one thing to one person and completely the opposite to another person." She also claimed Sam Altman was "creating chaos" inside the company and said there were times when he was deceptive with her and other executives. Murati added that despite these concerns, she still wanted Altman to remain CEO after he was temporarily removed from the company in 2023. "OpenAI was at catastrophic risk of falling apart," she said. "I was concerned about the company completely blowing up."
