OpenAI Trial Reveals Anthropic Merger Pitch and Sutskever's $7 Billion Stake
The latest testimony in Elon Musk's lawsuit against OpenAI and Sam Altman over the company's shift from nonprofit roots focused on the turmoil around Altman's brief 2023 ouster. The court heard that after Altman was fired, OpenAI's board met with Anthropic to propose a merger that would have made Dario Amodei chief executive. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella denied seeking Microsoft-friendly directors, said his aim was board stability and that he proposed no directors with safety backgrounds, and confirmed he vetoed Diane Greene as a board candidate before backing the slate that restored Altman.
Ilya Sutskever testified that his OpenAI stake is worth about $7 billion, up from roughly $5 billion last November, and that he had concerns about Altman for about a year before the ouster. Bret Taylor later testified that an independent review commissioned after Altman's reinstatement unanimously found nothing that warranted his termination, including agreement from Adam D'Angelo, the only member of the original board to remain.
From the sources (25 posts)
@wallstengineOPENAI’S PRESIDENT PRIVATELY WROTE THAT OPENAI WANTED MUSK OUT Greg Brockman’s 2017 journal has become one of the most revealing pieces of evidence in Musk v. Altman. In one entry, Brockman wrote: “the true answer is that we want him out
@mtsliveSITUATION UPDATE: Week three of the Musk v. Altman trial begins today at 8 am PT. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is expected to testify today.
@mikeisaacgut morgen from downtown oakland on what may turn out to be the last week of the musk v openai (featuring microsoft!) trial it is cold and i have a a cold coffee to keep me cold
@mikeisaacMSFT exec says MSFT has "recognized $9 billion in revenue" throughout the total life of their partnership with openAI. that is a figure that comes from their 20 percent revenue share. and that's after, i think, accounting for their 13b in
@mtsliveLIVE TRIAL UPDATE: Microsoft corporate representative Michael Wetter confirmed that Microsoft's approval was required for OpenAI to convert to a public benefit corporation.
@mtsliveLIVE TRIAL UPDATE: Satya Nadella testified he received a February 2018 email from Sam Altman informing him that Elon Musk had left OpenAI's board and that the company had created a new for-profit subsidiary.
@mikeisaacNadella, who was yanked out of a meeting when Altman was fired in 2023: "I was pretty surprised to say the least. b/c there was no reach out to me from the board, which i thought would be a pretty obvious thing to do." customers started
@mtsliveLIVE TRIAL UPDATE: Satya Nadella testified that IP access was central to Microsoft's decision to partner with OpenAI. "Without it, it wouldn't make any sense. We were not investing in OpenAI just as an investment -- there was an IP elemen
@mikeisaacdamn. Nadella, when told of new CEO being named at OAI, said "okay great we will support you and also we are going to create a competing company by hiring sam and greg and the gang." cold blooded
@mtsliveLIVE TRIAL UPDATE: Satya Nadella testified that if AGI is achieved, the entire Microsoft-OpenAI partnership agreement would be dissolved, with the nonprofit board of OpenAI solely deciding when that threshold is reached.
@mtsliveLIVE TRIAL UPDATE: Satya Nadella testified that Elon Musk never contacted him to raise objections to Microsoft's 2019 OpenAI partnership, the 2020 GPT-3 license, or the 2023 investment, despite the two having each other's phone numbers.
@mikeisaacnadella on how he feels about the OpenAI investment: "Im very proud that we took the risk and were willing to sponsor this fledgling lab at the time….and start, in fact, all the innovation happening today...and that it has created one of
@mtsliveLIVE TRIAL UPDATE: Satya Nadella testified that Microsoft hosts Elon Musk's xAI model Grok-4 on Azure, a partnership that continued even after Musk sued Microsoft. Nadella said Musk retweeted the announcement and thanked him.
@mtsliveLIVE TRIAL UPDATE: On cross-examination, Satya Nadella confirmed to Musk's attorneys that for-profit activities at a nonprofit are subservient to the nonprofit's mission.
@cointelegraph🚨 UPDATE: Satya Nadella testifies in Elon Musk vs. OpenAI lawsuit over OpenAI’s shift to a for-profit model Elon Musk accuses Microsoft of aiding OpenAI’s move.
@marionawfal🇺🇸 Microsoft's CEO just took the stand in Elon's OpenAI lawsuit. Satya Nadella took the stand today, the third billionaire to testify in weeks, after Elon and Brockman. Altman is up later this week. Closing arguments are Thursday. Elon's
@nypostMicrosoft CEO Satya Nadella defends OpenAI's for-profit status, shares past nerves over Altman ouster
@mtsliveLIVE TRIAL UPDATE: Musk's attorneys pressed Satya Nadella on whether he sought Microsoft-friendly directors during OpenAI's November 2023 board crisis. Nadella denied the characterization, saying his goal was board stability. He confirmed
@mtsliveLIVE TRIAL UPDATE: Satya Nadella confirmed he vetoed Diane Greene, former CEO of Google Cloud, as an OpenAI board candidate during the November 2023 crisis. He responded "strong, strong no" in texts with Sam Altman and ultimately endorsed
@mikeisaacNadella makes clear he said no to diane greene bc of her google affiliation and bing gordon bc of his amazon affiliation— both competitors to msft
@firstsquawkFORMER OPENAI CHIEF SCIENTIST ILYA SUTSKEVER CONFIRMS HIS OWNERSHIP STAKE IN OPENAI VALUED AT APPROXIMATELY USD 7 BLN - COURT HEARING
@garymarcus🚨BREAKING: Ilya just confirmed under oath what he saw: Sam lying. And he confirmed that he thought it was appropriate to fire Altman for it. And that he had been concerned for about Sam for a long time. 100% confirming what I had been sa
@businessOpenAI co-founder and former chief scientist Ilya Sutskever said his stake in the ChatGPT maker is worth roughly $7 billion, making him one of the largest individual shareholders in the artificial intelligence startup.
@rachelmetzi've been eagle-eyed for openai founder stake details in the musk/altman trial, which have long been a mystery. today we learned that @ilyasut's stake is worth about $7B, up from $5B last november. (last week we learned @gdb's stake is wort
@techmemeMusk v. Altman: Ilya Sutskever testifies that his OpenAI stake is worth ~$7B and he had concerns about Altman for a year before Altman's brief ouster as CEO (@rachelmetz / Bloomberg) (Visit Techmeme dot com for the link and full context!)