OpenAI President Greg Brockman testified Tuesday in Oakland federal court that Elon Musk supported converting OpenAI from a nonprofit to a for-profit company. That part was expected. What was not expected: Brockman's testimony that Musk wanted sole control of the restructured entity specifically to raise $80 billion to build a city on Mars.

Let that sink in. The man suing OpenAI for $134 billion, claiming Altman and Brockman "stole a charity" by going for-profit, allegedly wanted to go for-profit himself. His condition? He runs the whole thing. His reason? Mars.

According to Brockman's sworn testimony, the $80 billion figure came directly from Musk during negotiations about OpenAI's future structure. Musk had publicly stated around the same time that colonizing Mars would cost approximately $80 billion. The implication in Brockman's telling: Musk saw OpenAI as a funding vehicle for his interplanetary ambitions, not as a charitable AI safety mission.

This is the kind of detail that reshapes a jury's understanding of motive. Musk's entire case rests on the argument that OpenAI's for-profit conversion was a betrayal of its founding mission. But if Musk himself was pushing for that same conversion, and his motive was to funnel the proceeds into SpaceX's Mars program, the "stolen charity" narrative starts to look less like a principled stand and more like a dispute over who gets to profit.

Musk's legal team had a rough day on cross-examination too. Lead attorney Steven Molo confronted Brockman over his $30 billion stake in OpenAI, asking pointedly: "You just happen to be $30 billion richer?" Brockman did not have a clean answer. But the Mars revelation gave OpenAI's defense exactly what it needed: a competing narrative about whose self-interest was really driving the conversion.

The trial resumed Wednesday with Shivon Zilis, mother of four of Musk's children and a former OpenAI board member, taking the stand. Zilis is one of the trial's most complicated witnesses. OpenAI's defense has argued she served as Musk's informant inside the organization after his 2018 departure. Musk's side argues she was used by Altman as a backchannel to manipulate Musk. In a deposition, when asked if she and Musk were ever in a romantic relationship, Zilis answered: "Relationship is a relative term. But there have been romantic moments."

The trial, before Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, is scheduled to continue through late May. Musk is seeking $150 billion in damages and the removal of both Altman and Brockman from their positions. Altman is expected to testify as early as next week.

Here is the scoreboard so far. Musk's team has established that Brockman and Altman enriched themselves massively through the conversion. OpenAI's team has established that Musk supported the conversion, used OpenAI employees for free Tesla work, physically intimidated Brockman, and wanted control to fund his Mars colony. Neither side looks clean. But only one side is suing for $134 billion while simultaneously claiming the conversion was the problem.

Sources: Reuters, CNBC (Ashley Capoot), BBC, Business Insider, Wired (Maxwell Zeff), NYT (Nico Grant), Vanity Fair (Tom Dotan), The Guardian, NBC News, Fox News, Japan Times.