Elon Musk’s Last-Ditch Effort to Control OpenAI: Recruit Sam Altman to Tesla
WIRED • • business
Key Points:
- Elon Musk attempted to recruit OpenAI CEO Sam Altman to join a Tesla AI lab and offered him a Tesla board seat before leaving OpenAI's board in February 2018, as revealed by emails and testimony in the Musk v. Altman trial.
- Musk alleges that Altman and OpenAI president Greg Brockman misappropriated Musk’s $38 million investment in the nonprofit to create a private company now valued at over $800 billion, while OpenAI counters that Musk’s motives stem from resentment after failing to control OpenAI.
- Testimony from Shivon Zilis, a former OpenAI adviser and Tesla executive, disclosed Musk’s plans to merge OpenAI with Tesla and recruit key personnel like Andrej Karpathy, though these plans never materialized.
- Zilis, who later served on OpenAI’s board and is the mother of four of Musk’s children via IVF, resigned from the board in 2023 after learning about Musk’s competing AI lab, xAI, highlighting ongoing tensions between Musk and OpenAI leadership.
- Upcoming trial witnesses include former OpenAI employee Rosie Campbell and nonprofit law expert David Schizer, as the case continues to explore the complex legal and personal dynamics behind Musk’s claims.
