The second week of Musk versus Altman opened Monday in federal court in Oakland with OpenAI co-founder and President Greg Brockman taking the stand. [1] Cross-examination ran most of the trial day; testimony resumes Tuesday. Musk's lawyers focused on Brockman's personal journal entries from the period of the OpenAI for-profit conversion debate, and on the nonprofit-mission language Musk's complaint cites verbatim. The paper's Monday brief staged the second-week setup.

Brockman disclosed in court that his stake in OpenAI is worth nearly $30 billion — a number Musk has cited in arguing OpenAI departed from its founding charitable mission. [2] The disclosure confirms a figure Musk's filings have used since the April amendment to the complaint. Brockman characterized the equity as the long-form result of the company's commercial scaling, not an indicator of mission abandonment.

A new OpenAI filing submitted Sunday says Musk texted Brockman about a settlement two days before trial began. [3] After Brockman replied suggesting both sides drop suits, the exchange escalated, with Musk responding: "By the end of this week, you and Sam will be the most hated men in America. If you insist, so it will be." [4] The judge ruled the exchange inadmissible at trial. The text excerpts have circulated on tech-Twitter since the filing.

Sam Altman is not expected to take the stand until the week of May 11. [1] The atmosphere outside the courthouse Monday was, by ABC7's reporting, "noticeably calmer" than the prior week with Musk testifying. The trial's structural register has pivoted from Musk's narrative to the documentary record — Brockman's journal entries, the Microsoft partnership amendment Microsoft announced last week, and the OpenAI Group public-benefit corporation cap table that has leaked through tech-Twitter at intervals across the trial. [5] The journals are the spine. The witnesses follow them.

-- THEO KAPLAN, San Francisco