In a dramatic turn during the ongoing legal battle between Elon Musk and OpenAI, the AI firm's legal team released internal emails from 2018 showing that Musk himself suggested merging OpenAI with Tesla, which he described as a "cash cow," and demanded majority control of the nonprofit organization.
The revelation came on the third day of the trial, directly undercutting Musk's argument that he had always opposed OpenAI's shift toward a for-profit model. According to the presented evidence, Musk envisioned Tesla as a financial engine for OpenAI while consolidating his own authority over the venture.
OpenAI's defense argued that Musk's proposal to absorb the research lab into Tesla and his insistence on majority equity stake demonstrate that his current objections are disingenuous. The emails could prove pivotal as the court weighs whether OpenAI's transformation from a nonprofit to a capped-profit entity violated its original mission.
Musk, who co-founded OpenAI in 2015 and left in 2018, has accused the company of betraying its altruistic goals by partnering with Microsoft. The trial continues to draw attention from the tech industry, as its outcome may set precedents for how AI organizations balance open research with commercial interests.