Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella testified in court on Monday in the Musk v. OpenAI case, stating that the OpenAI board's handling of Sam Altman's dismissal in 2023 was "extremely amateurish." He also noted that he never received prior communication or a reasonable explanation from the board.
"Amateurish Level": Nadella Criticizes Board's Lack of Communication While testifying in federal court in Oakland, California, Nadella said he was "at least quite surprised" by Altman's dismissal. As OpenAI's largest investor and strategic partner, Nadella believed the board should have communicated with him in advance.
However, the board never proactively contacted him. When he pressed for reasons behind the dismissal, OpenAI only cited Altman's failure to "consistently be candid in his communications with the board" as the reason, without providing details of specific incidents. In his testimony, Nadella bluntly stated, "From my perspective, this was completely amateurish." He speculated that "jealousy" or internal communication issues might have been behind the dismissal.
Core of Musk's Lawsuit: Does Microsoft Control OpenAI? The case stems from a lawsuit filed by Elon Musk in 2024, accusing Altman, Brockman, and Microsoft of abandoning OpenAI's original non-profit mission in favor of a profit-driven approach, constituting "charitable fraud." Musk previously testified that Microsoft's $13 billion investment was the "turning point" that convinced him OpenAI had broken its promise.
In court, Nadella denied that Microsoft controls OpenAI, emphasizing that the relationship is a "strategic partnership" based on intellectual property, not one of control. Responding to a statement from Musk's lawyer referencing "we are under them, over them, around them," Nadella explained this was merely a comment on the technical level and unrelated to corporate control. He stated, "It's about a strategic partnership, we have the right to use intellectual property—but that has nothing to do with control."
Microsoft's Internal Divisions and Strategic Anxiety Internal emails disclosed during the trial revealed Nadella's deeper strategic concerns. In a 2022 email, he wrote, "I don't want to be IBM, letting OpenAI become Microsoft." This statement directly echoes the history of IBM handing over operating system development to Microsoft in the 1980s, only to be surpassed by the latter.
Nadella also admitted that after Altman's dismissal, he was concerned about a large-scale exodus of OpenAI employees, particularly to competitors like Google and xAI. "I just wanted to make sure that, no matter what, we could retain the team that created all this technology," he said.
Financial Returns and Nature of Investment Nadella insisted that Microsoft's investment had clear commercial objectives from the start, rather than being a charitable donation. Video testimony from Microsoft Corporate Development executive Michael Weite showed that, as of March 2025, Microsoft had generated approximately $9.5 billion in cumulative revenue through its partnership with OpenAI. Microsoft currently holds about a 27% stake in OpenAI's for-profit entity, valued at around $135 billion. Nadella emphasized, "I am proud of the risk we took when no one else was willing to invest."
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