Musk mulled handing OpenAI to his children, Altman testifies | TechCrunch

"“It feels difficult to even wrap my head around that framing,” Altman said after several seconds of silence. “We created one of the largest charities in the world. This foundation is doing incredible work and will do much more.”"

"Musk's attorneys have been at pains to point out that OpenAI's foundation, which now has assets on the order of $200 billion, didn't have full-time employees until earlier this year. OpenAI board chair Bret Taylor testified today that was simply because of the challenge of converting OpenAI equity to cash, which was accomplished with the organization's most recent restructuring in 2025."

"The central question posed by Musk's lawyers is whether the company's commitment to safety had been left behind as its commercial power grew. But Altman said that in 2017, during a pivotal period when the founders wrestled with how to obtain the funding to power their AI models, Musk's “specific plans on safety made me worry.”"

"He described a “particularly hair-raising moment” in the debate when Musk was asked what would happen if he died while controlling a hypothetical OpenAI for-profit. In Altman's telling, Musk said “maybe OpenAI should pass to my children.” Altman said that Musk's focus on controlling the initial for-profit gave him pause because OpenAI was dedicated to keeping advanced AI out of the hands of a single person."

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman testified in response to Elon Musk’s lawsuit challenging OpenAI’s corporate structure. Altman rejected Musk’s claim that founders “stole a charity,” saying the organization created one of the largest charities and that the foundation would do more work. Musk’s attorneys emphasized that the foundation had not had full-time employees until earlier this year, attributing this to the conversion of OpenAI equity into cash completed through a 2025 restructuring. The dispute centered on whether safety commitments were abandoned as commercial activity increased. Altman said Musk’s safety plans worried him in 2017 and described a tense moment about what would happen if Musk died while controlling a hypothetical for-profit, including a remark about passing control to children.

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