Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella defends OpenAIs for-profit status, shares past nerves over Altman ouster
OAKLAND, CALIF.— Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella defended OpenAI’s pivot to for-profit status and discussed his company’s hopes for a juicy return on its investment during Monday testimony in Elon Musk’s suit against the AI giant.“Without a for-profit entity, it would be hard for OpenAI to pursue its mission,” Nadella said in federal court in Oakland, Calif.Musk’s attorney Steven Molo hit him with sharp questions throughout his testimony, which came in the third week of the trial over Musk’s allegations that OpenAI betrayed its founding contract by putting commercial gain over developing AI for the benefit of humankind.As part of his suit, the Tesla titan has accused Microsoft of aiding OpenAI’s alleged breach of charitable trust when it turned into a for-profit.Microsoft planning documents from 2023 shared in court Monday showed the company hoped to reap a cool $92 billion return on its initial $13 billion investment in OpenAI.The massive valuation of $852 billion the AI giant reached in March puts Microsoft’s stake in the company at around $135 billion.“It’s worked out very, very, very well for Microsoft, hasn’t it?” Molo asked, drawing a response in the affirmative from Nadella.Monday’s testimony also touched on a big theme from last week — the controversial ouster of OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman in November 2023.
He returned to the role days later.Nadella said he was concerned by the initial firing, explaining that he promised to support possible new leadership but didn’t want Altman to go off and join a rival, either.“That was obviously very concerning to me,” said the Microsoft maven.“Given all of that competition, I just wanted to make sure we could hang on to the band that created all this technology.”The Microsoft-OpenAI partnership has seen its ups and downs, with the software giant getting a 27% ownership stake in the startup following OpenAI’s restructuring last year.Nadella asserted Monday he was “very proud” t...