OpenAI President Greg Brockman testified in the OpenAI Musk trial. He said that Elon Musk wanted full control of the company partly to raise $80 billion for a city on Mars.
The testimony came during the second week of a trial in California. This was over Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI and Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman.
Brockman told the court that Musk pushed in 2017 for OpenAI to move from a nonprofit structure to a for-profit company.
He said Musk argued that a charitable structure made it difficult to raise funds needed to build advanced artificial intelligence models.
Brockman said Musk made clear he wanted to lead OpenAI if the restructuring went forward.
“He said he needed $80 billion to create a city on Mars,” Brockman told the court. Brockman said Musk also stated he would decide when to give up control.
He described a 2017 meeting in which Musk rejected an equity structure. Musk then stood up and took a painting by Ilya Sutskever before leaving.
Brockman said Musk later threatened to withhold future funding until the dispute was resolved.
Musk is suing OpenAI and Altman, alleging they persuaded him to donate $38 million to the nonprofit before abandoning its charitable mission.
Musk is seeking $150 billion in damages and wants Altman and Brockman removed from their roles.
Musk left OpenAI’s board in February 2018, while OpenAI created a for-profit unit in March 2019.
