These were among the options explored by OpenAI’s founders as they considered the best structure to enable the company to raise enough capital to take on Google while maintaining its non-profit mission.
Ultimately, OpenAI executives did not agree with Musk’s proposals. Zilis told Musk’s then-chief of staff Sam Taylor in a February 2018 email: “They all think Elon is an incredible human being, but he hasn’t really done his AI/AGI homework and that’s really concerning about working with him.”
Musk left OpenAI’s board in early 2018, and OpenAI went on to restructure as a for-profit entity with a charitable arm.
The world’s richest man is suing the company in a case that could alter the fortunes of OpenAI, which became an $852 billion behemoth with aspirations of a public listing earlier this year.
Musk claims that Altman, Brockman and OpenAI unjustly enriched themselves by turning the start-up into a for-profit company.
William Savitt, OpenAI’s lead attorney in the case, said he believed Zilis’ testimony showed that Musk was “willing to do this for profit, provided he got control.”
Speaking after Wednesday’s court hearing, Savitt said Musk tried to take over the reigns and turn OpenAI into Tesla…when he had no options available he picked up his marbles and went home.
Brockman, OpenAI’s president, told a jury in Oakland on Tuesday that Musk was seeking “unilateral control over AGI,” which he and the other founders could not accept.
Zilis, a technology expert who has also worked as an executive at Tesla and Musk’s brain-implant company Neuralink, told the court on Wednesday that his “integrity [is] For the best outcome of AI for humanity.”
She and Musk first had a romantic relationship nearly a decade ago and decided to have children via IVF in 2020. “I… really wanted to be a mother. [Musk] He was encouraging everyone around him to have kids…he said if it was ever interesting he would be able to donate,” she said.
In 2020, two years after the pair battled over the direction of OpenAI, Altman messaged Zilis asking for advice on how to approach Musk. She was encouraging, but warned him: “The only thing I wonder is whether he’ll pull the ‘you should have gone with a Tesla’ card on you.”
© 2026 The Financial Times Ltd. All rights reserved. May not be redistributed, copied, or modified in any way.
<a href