William Savitt, representing Sam Altman and OpenAI, is spending his opening statement batting away Elon Musk's claims that his $38 million in charitable donations came with conditions. Musk alleges Altman deceived him by taking the money and then transforming OpenAI into a for-profit enterprise.

"The question is whether OpenAI made specific promises to Musk when he made his donations," Savitt said. "And the answer to that is no."

In his own opening statement, William Savitt, representing Sam Altman and OpenAI, says Elon Musk brought the lawsuit because he's losing the AI race.

"The evidence will show that Musk never cared about OpenAI being a nonprofit, he never cared about open source, he never cared about AI safety," said Savitt, of the elite Wall Street law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz. "The only thing Musk cared about is being on top."

The line to get into witness the epic showdown was so long, it went out the front doors of the Oakland federal courthouse. Business Insider reporter Katherine Li waited in the line earlier Tuesday with lawyers, press, and what appeared to be members of the public, before getting inside just in time for opening arguments.

On Monday, the outside of the courthouse was overflowing with protesters, including a guy dressed in a robot suit with a sign that read: "Altman's AI enslaver."

• Elon Musk lawyer Steven Molo kicked off the trial with opening statements attacking Sam Altman.
• "The case isn't about Elon Musk," Molo said. "It's about the defendants that helped Musk found a nonprofit charity OpenAI. And in the process, they have enriched themselves and breached the very principle the organization was founded upon."
• The trial is now in recess. A lawyer representing OpenAI and Sam Altman will present opening arguments next.
• Elon Musk is expected to take the stand as soon as today.

OpenAI, founded as a nonprofit AI research lab, "broke every promise" when it became "a for-profit operation for the good of the defendants," Elon Musk's attorney, Steven Molo, told the jury in his opening remarks.

Last year, OpenAI completed a major restructuring that shifted the company toward a more conventional for-profit structure. It's now valued at over $800 million and is reportedly working toward an IPO that could take place this year.

Already, this case has led to a treasure trove of private emails and other documents, including text messages showing Musk asking Meta's Mark Zuckerberg to join him in an unsolicited bid for OpenAI's intellectual property.

Earlier on Tuesday, employees at MoloLamken, a firm representing Elon Musk, were spotted wheeling boxes of documents into the Oakland courthouse.

Nine jurors will be deciding whether OpenAI is liable in the trial.

If OpenAI is found liable, US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers will be deciding the remedies in a separate phase. As Business Insider has previously reported, Judge Gonzalez Rogers is considered tough but fair.

Musk has asked her to reverse the transformation of OpenAI's for-profit arm and disgorge it of "ill-gotten gains."

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Ahead of the trial's opening arguments, Elon Musk boosted the visibility of a New Yorker magazine investigation about Sam Altman. The New Yorker story examined claims that Altman had been dishonest in business dealings and in running OpenAI — claims that dovetail with Musk's lawsuit.

On Musk's social media network X, formerly Twitter, a post from one of the article's co-authors Ronan Farrow was labeled as "Boosted" and said, "This organic post was boosted by @elonmusk."

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