Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella took the stand within the Musk v. Altman trial on Monday, the place he testified that Elon Musk by no means contacted him with considerations that Microsoft’s investments in OpenAI had been in violation of any particular phrases or commitments.
Nadella, sporting a navy go well with with a blue tie, concluded his testimony in federal courtroom in Oakland, California, after a number of hours of questioning. He answered questions concerning the early days of Microsoft’s strategic partnership with OpenAI, his understanding of the businesses’ relationship and his position in the course of the chaotic few days when Sam Altman was briefly ousted as CEO of OpenAI.
Altman’s testimony is slated to start on Tuesday, in response to his legal professionals.
In 2024, Musk sued OpenAI, Altman, and the corporate’s president, Greg Brockman, alleging that they went again on their vow to guard the factitious intelligence firm’s nonprofit construction and observe its charitable mission. Microsoft is called as a defendant within the lawsuit, as Musk accuses the corporate of aiding and abetting OpenAI’s purported breach of charitable belief.
Microsoft has been one in all OpenAI’s main backers since 2019, years earlier than the corporate rocketed into the mainstream with the launch of its ChatGPT chatbot in late 2022. Microsoft’s greater than $13 billion price of investments in OpenAI, together with a $1 billion funding in 2019, a $2 billion funding in 2021 and $10 billion in 2023, have come up repeatedly over the course of the trial.
Nadella mentioned he was “very proud” that Microsoft took the chance to put money into OpenAI when “nobody else was prepared” to guess on the fledgling lab.
Musk, who testified late final month, mentioned Microsoft’s $10 billion funding was the important thing tipping level that made him imagine OpenAI was violating its nonprofit mission. He testified that the size of the funding bothered him, and it prompted him to open a authorized investigation into OpenAI.
“I used to be involved they had been actually making an attempt to steal the charity,” Musk mentioned from the stand.
Nadella mentioned he didn’t imagine Microsoft’s investments in OpenAI had been donations, and that there was a transparent industrial factor to their partnership from the outset.
He mentioned in the course of the partnership’s early years, Microsoft gave OpenAI sharp reductions on computing sources, and Microsoft believed it will reap advertising advantages from doing so.
Throughout a separate video deposition that was performed on Monday morning, Michael Wetter, a company improvement government at Microsoft, mentioned the corporate has acknowledged roughly $9.5 billion in income thus far by way of its partnership with OpenAI as of March 2025.
Musk co-founded OpenAI alongside Altman, Brockman and a handful of different executives and researchers in 2015. After quite a lot of disagreements about OpenAI’s course, together with a failed effort to affix it along with his automaker Tesla, Musk left the OpenAI board in 2018. He went on to launch a competing AI startup, xAI, which he merged with SpaceX earlier this 12 months.
OpenAI established a for-profit subsidiary within the months following Musk’s departure, which allowed the corporate to lift exterior funding extra simply. Buyers, together with Microsoft, have since poured billions of {dollars} into OpenAI’s for-profit arm, and the corporate’s valuation has swelled to greater than $850 billion.
In November 2023, Altman was briefly fired from his position at OpenAI after the board decided he had not been “not persistently candid in his communications.” He was reinstated days later, after an intense few days of negotiations.
Nadella mentioned he was “fairly stunned” by the board’s resolution, and that his precedence was to attempt to work out methods to preserve continuity for Microsoft clients. Instantly after Altman was eliminated, Nadella mentioned he made an effort to study extra about what occurred, including that he suspected jealousy and poor communication was at play.
Throughout conversations with OpenAI board members after the firing, Nadella mentioned he was merely making an attempt to grasp the language within the OpenAI’s assertion about Altman being “not persistently candid” whereas speaking with the board.
That language, Nadella mentioned, “simply did not type of suffice, as a result of that is the CEO of an organization that we’re invested in and we’re deeply partnered with, and so I felt that they may have defined to me what are the incidents or what’s the element behind it.”
There should have been cases of jealousy or miscommunication that would have justified pushing out Altman, Nadella mentioned. He needed extra depth from the board members after the comment about candor, however no such data was out there, he mentioned.
“It was type of beginner metropolis, so far as I am involved,” Nadella testified.
In October, OpenAI accomplished a recapitalization that cemented its construction as a nonprofit with an fairness stake in its for-profit enterprise. As a part of that announcement, Microsoft disclosed that it held a roughly 27% stake in OpenAI’s for-profit unit that was valued at round $135 billion.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is questioned by Microsoft legal professional Jay Jurata throughout Elon Musk’s lawsuit trial over OpenAI’s for-profit conversion at a federal courthouse in Oakland, California, U.S., Could 11, 2026 in a courtroom sketch.
Vicki Behringer | Reuters
The connection between OpenAI and Microsoft has proven indicators of pressure in current months, at the same time as each firms proceed to tout it as strategic and core to their companies. Late final month, the identical day that jury choice kicked off in Musk v. Altman, the businesses introduced a revamped partnership settlement that permits OpenAI to cap income share funds and serve clients throughout any cloud supplier.
OpenAI mentioned in a launch that the settlement aimed to “simplify our partnership and the way in which we work collectively.”
Musk testified that he’s not completely in opposition to OpenAI having a for-profit unit, however he mentioned it grew to become “the tail wagging the canine.” He repeatedly accused Altman and Brockman of enriching themselves from a charity whereas additionally reaping the constructive associations that come from working a nonprofit.
“Microsoft has their very own motivations, and that may be totally different from the motivations of the charity,” Musk mentioned from the stand. “All due respect to Microsoft, do you actually need Microsoft controlling digital superintelligence?”
Throughout a videotaped deposition proven in courtroom final week, former OpenAI director Tasha McCauley recalled a dialogue with Nadella and her fellow board members after the 2023 resolution to dismiss Altman as OpenAI’s CEO.
“To the very best of my recollection, Satya needed to revive issues to as that they had been,” McCauley mentioned. The board members did not assume that was the precise transfer, she mentioned.
However as a courtroom witness on Monday, Nadella mentioned he by no means demanded that the board reinstate Altman as OpenAI CEO.
OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever is questioned by Elon Musk’s lawyer Steven Molo throughout Musk’s lawsuit trial over OpenAI’s for-profit conversion at a federal courthouse in Oakland, California, U.S., Could 11, 2026 in a courtroom sketch.
Vicki Behringer | Reuters
Musk lawyer Steven Molo confirmed Nadella screenshots of textual content messages Nadella had exchanged with Kevin Scott, Microsoft’s expertise chief, about potential candidates to affix OpenAI’s board.
Amongst these named within the dialog had been Coinbase Chief Working Officer Emilie Choi, former Eventbrite CEO Julia Hartz, former Gates Basis CEO Sue Desmond-Hellmann, former Klein Perkins Caufield & Byers investor Bing Gordon, former Xerox CEO Ursula Burns, former LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner and former Alphabet director Diane Greene.
In 2015, Google purchased Greene’s firm Bebop, and he or she took over Google’s cloud division. In 2019, she left Google and the Alphabet board.
Nadella mentioned “no” in a textual content message relating to Greene taking an OpenAI board seat. On Monday, he mentioned that he was opposed as a result of Greene, on the time, was affiliated with Google or had been till just lately.
“I assumed there have been going to be conflicts due to our main competitors with Google,” he mentioned.
Nadella mentioned that when he grew to become Microsoft’s CEO in 2014, Google had been the corporate’s predominant competitor in AI, following the acquisition of AI lab DeepMind.
OpenAI introduced the appointment of Desmond-Hellmann to its board in March 2024.
“I had recognized her from the previous,” Nadella mentioned.
Molo additionally requested about an electronic mail Nadella despatched in 2022 to a number of Microsoft executives relating to phrases that may be favorable to the corporate when collaborating with OpenAI.
“I do not wish to be IBM and OpenAI to be Microsoft,” Nadella wrote.
In 1980, IBM signed a non-exclusive settlement to distribute Microsoft’s DOS working system on IBM private computer systems. The deal allowed Microsoft to do enterprise round DOS with a number of different PC makers, main the software program to grow to be pervasive. Later, Microsoft offered licenses of its Home windows working system to system makers, cementing its position in data expertise.
“Finally Microsoft grew to be a way more distinguished and essential firm than IBM, appropriate?” Molo requested.
“That is proper,” Nadella mentioned.
As of market shut on Monday, Microsoft’s market capitalization stood at $3 trillion, whereas IBM was price $210 billion.
OpenAI co-founder Sutskever takes the stand
After Nadella concluded his testimony, Ilya Sutskever, a former OpenAI co-founder and a famend AI researcher, was referred to as to the stand. Sutskever was sporting a blue button-down shirt, and he answered questions on his resolution to affix the corporate, his communications with Musk and his involvement in Altman’s ouster.
Sutskever used to work at Google, and he testified that the corporate provided to pay him as a lot as $6 million a 12 months to attempt to preserve him from leaving for OpenAI. He was one of many staff who finally expressed considerations about Altman’s conduct to the board, partially as a result of he mentioned he felt “a substantial amount of possession” over the startup.
“I merely cared for it, and I did not need it to be destroyed,” Sutskever mentioned.
Bret Taylor, chairman of the board at OpenAI, adopted Sutskever on the stand. He defined OpenAI’s construction to the jury, and he additionally spoke concerning the “dire” interval when Altman was eliminated as chief government.
Taylor didn’t end his testimony earlier than proceedings concluded on Monday, so he shall be again on the stand on Tuesday at 8:30 a.m. PT.
— CNBC’s Lora Kolodny contributed to this report.
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