Altman Reveals Breakdown in OpenAI Negotiations with Musk Over Absolute Control

CoinDesk reports, according to monitoring by Beating, Altman provided a detailed account of early negotiations with Elon Musk on the Core Memory podcast. He said that the four core members—himself, Brockman, Ilya Sutskever, and Musk—all agreed that OpenAI needed to transition into a for-profit company. The negotiations came close to reaching an agreement: Musk requested majority equity, which they conceded; Musk demanded to serve as CEO “to make it clear to everyone that he was in charge,” which they also accepted. However, Musk ultimately demanded “absolute control over OpenAI,” which became the breaking point. His exact words: “No one person should control the entire future, no matter who that person is.” Altman said this version had “never been shared publicly for years,” and the upcoming lawsuit “left us with no choice.” He views the trial as an opportunity “to tell our story,” while expressing concern that Musk might drop the lawsuit before trial, “because then we won’t have a chance to clarify any of this.” The trial is scheduled for April 27, with Musk seeking damages between $79 billion and $134 billion.