GoKawiilShivon Zilis, former board member of OpenAI Inc., arrives at the federal court in Oakland, California, US, on Wednesday, May 6, 2026.
The high-stakes trial in Elon Musk's lawsuit against OpenAI CEO Sam Altman will conclude its second week of proceedings on Thursday.
Musk's attorneys called several witnesses to the stand over the course of the week, including OpenAI President Greg Brockman and Shivon Zilis, who served on the startup's board and has a close personal and professional relationship with Musk. A number of other executives, including Altman and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, could still be called to testify.
Zilis, who has four children with Musk, took the stand on Wednesday and was questioned by lawyers for Musk and OpenAI about the conversations she had about OpenAI's corporate structure around 2017 and 2018.
Musk sued OpenAI, Altman and Brockman in 2024, alleging that they went back on their promises to keep the artificial intelligence company a nonprofit and to follow its charitable mission. He co-founded the startup alongside Altman and Brockman in 2015.
OpenAI established a for-profit subsidiary after Musk left the company in 2018, and that business unit is the central focus of his lawsuit.
During her testimony, Zilis said that her primary role at OpenAI was to serve as a liaison between Musk, Altman, Brockman and Ilya Sutskever, another co-founder at the company.
Zilis testified that the four executives discussed OpenAI's corporate structure "ad nauseam," including several different for-profit options. At one point during the negotiations, Zilis said Musk wanted OpenAI to join Tesla , and he offered Altman a board seat at the company.
"There were lots and lots of arguments about all of the different possible structures put in place at that time," Zilis said.