Ringside at Musk’s Combative Week in Court: California Brief

Ringside at Musk’s Combative Week in Court

Elon Musk

Photographer: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Tensions were reaching a boiling point between the world’s richest person and one of America’s preeminent corporate litigators.

“Can I answer this question without you interrupting me?” Elon Musk, growing visibly irritated, said on the witness stand in his closely watched jury trial against Sam Altman and OpenAI.

OpenAI’s attorney William Savitt snapped back: “I don’t know.”

The clash was one example of a mostly combative cross-examination of the trial’s star witness in a case that could help shape the future of OpenAI as it moves toward an IPO this year. Musk accuses ...