OpenAI trial: Musk's child's mother testifies, says Musk once offered Altman a seat on Tesla's board

The Musk lawsuit against OpenAI has entered a critical stage. This week's trial has revealed a series of evidence contradicting Musk's previous testimony, making the course of this high-stakes litigation increasingly unpredictable.

Shivon Zilis, who has four children with Musk, testified in court on Wednesday. She was a member of the OpenAI board and served as a communication link between Musk and OpenAI's management.

On the core dispute of this case, Zilis testified that OpenAI's executive team engaged in repeated discussions and intense debates about the company’s structure, during which various commercialization plans were explored. At one point, Musk wanted to merge OpenAI into Tesla and offered Altman a seat on Tesla’s board as a bargaining chip.

This testimony directly touches the core accusation of Musk's lawsuit—he claims Altman and Brockman betrayed their promise to maintain OpenAI’s nonprofit nature.

Zilis's testimony also shows that while Musk was still a board member at OpenAI, he tried to poach talent from the company—which contradicts his previous statements. Evidence presented during the trial also shows, Musk unilaterally froze donations while OpenAI was considering the establishment of a for-profit division, without notifying his co-founders.

Zilis testimony: Endless disputes over structure, Musk once planned to merge OpenAI into Tesla

Zilis stated in court her main role at OpenAI was as a liaison among Musk, Altman, Greg Brockman, and another co-founder Ilya Sutskever. She testified the four engaged in constant heated discussions over the company's governance structure, covering various commercialization schemes.

At one stage in the negotiations, Musk proposed having OpenAI become part of Tesla and offered Altman a board seat at Tesla. This suggests Musk himself was not always strictly adhering to OpenAI’s purely nonprofit stance, but actively explored commercial integration of the company.

Musk eventually left OpenAI in 2018. Afterwards, OpenAI established a for-profit subsidiary, which is now at the heart of Musk’s lawsuit. In 2024, he sued, accusing Altman and Brockman of betraying OpenAI’s original nonprofit mission.

Previously, Musk testified that he was not completely opposed to OpenAI setting up a for-profit division, but stated the division “became the tail that wags the dog,” repeatedly accusing Altman and Brockman of trying to “steal a charitable organization.”

Evidence shows Musk secretly froze donations and actively poached talent

Documents produced during the trial directly contradict aspects of Musk’s prior testimony. Text and email records show that while OpenAI was considering launching a for-profit business, Musk quietly stopped regular donations without informing his co-founders.

According to August 2017 communication between Zilis and Musk's other employee, Sam Teller, Zilis mentioned a "fund freeze" and wrote, “OpenAI might realize this week” that the quarterly $5 million donation was on hold, “if they find out, it might have a big psychological impact.”

On the poaching issue, Musk previously testified that Andrej Karpathy, who left OpenAI to lead Tesla’s Autopilot business, was already planning to leave, and he himself did not actively recruit him.

However, when OpenAI’s lawyer presented Zilis with a text record (showing her congratulating Musk’s invite to Karpathy and Karpathy’s acceptance), Zilis admitted it was Musk who actively approached Karpathy first.

In February 2018, after the merger plan between OpenAI and Tesla fell through, Zilis texted Musk, asking if he wanted her to continue close contact with the OpenAI team. Musk replied:

"Be friendly, but we will actively poach three or four people from OpenAI. More will join over time, but we won’t proactively recruit them."

Competition between Musk and OpenAI: From the concept of an AI lab to xAI

Evidence also shows that Musk once considered creating an artificial intelligence lab within Tesla to compete directly against OpenAI and Google’s DeepMind, but Zilis testified that the plan ultimately failed to materialize.

Musk subsequently founded independent AI company xAI in 2023. On Wednesday, he stated that xAI has merged with SpaceX and is now renamed SpacexAI.

Zilis herself left a deeply personal note about this situation in a text to a friend on February 25, 2023. At the time, rumors of Musk founding an OpenAI competitor were spreading, and she wrote:

"When the father of the children launches competition and will poach from OpenAI, there’s really nothing I can do."

Zilis's dual identity: Board member and mother of Musk’s children

The personal relationship between Zilis and Musk was also detailed at trial. She testified she began working for OpenAI as an informal advisor in 2016, through which she met Musk.

She has worked at several Musk companies, including OpenAI, Tesla, and Neuralink, and served as an OpenAI board member from 2020 to 2023—by which time Musk had long since left the company.

The two have several children together, but Zilis said she and Musk signed a confidentiality agreement regarding his "donations" and agreed to "complete secrecy"—partly to protect the children from Musk-related security risks, and also because Musk initially did not plan to actively participate in their upbringing.

Zilis said that after learning the media was investigating related reports, she had to proactively tell Altman that Musk was the father of her children.

After OpenAI learned of this complex private relationship, Zilis was allowed to remain on the board, but ultimately resigned in 2023, triggered by rumors Musk was about to found a competitor.

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