"Want 80 billion to build a Mars city": After Elon Musk's request for 51% control of OpenAI was rejected, he cut off supplies and slammed the door.

According to Beating Monitoring, in the second week of Elon Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI, OpenAI President Brockman testified on May 5th, revealing details of the breakdown in negotiations over control rights in 2017. Brockman publicly disclosed for the first time in court OpenAI’s computing power bill: soaring from approximately $30 million in 2017 to an estimated $50 billion in 2026. In the early days, the team sought funding one by one from wealthy individuals listed on Forbes’ billionaire list, and Musk himself believed that pure charity alone could not sustain the organization. Both sides agreed that transitioning to a profit-oriented model was necessary. The disagreement lay in the conditions: Musk demanded 51% ownership and to serve as CEO, stating he needed $80 billion to build a city on Mars, and controlling the appreciation of OpenAI’s equity was one of the fundraising strategies.

In a meeting in August 2017, Altman proposed that the four founders split the equity equally, which Musk immediately rejected. He told the team, “You are all excellent, but I can start another AI company tomorrow with a single tweet.” When the founding team later suggested he could buy additional shares at market price, Musk completely lost his temper. “He suddenly stood up and rushed over; I truly thought he was going to hit me,” Brockman recalled in court. Musk eventually picked up a Tesla painting drawn by former chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, threw the door open, and announced the termination of his previously pledged quarterly donation.