Elon Musk pushed to transform OpenAI into a for-profit company and demanded full control because he needed to raise massive sums of money, including $80 billion, to colonize Mars. OpenAI President Greg Brockman testified Tuesday in a high-stakes California trial that could reshape the future of one of the world’s most valuable artificial intelligence companies.

Brockman’s testimony, now in its second day, painted a picture of tense negotiations in 2017 when Musk, then on OpenAI’s board, argued that a nonprofit structure would make it impossible to raise the enormous capital required to compete in the race for advanced AI. According to Brockman, Musk made it clear he should lead the organization if it converted to for-profit status.

“Altman was the only other candidate,” Brockman said.

The testimony revealed a particularly heated meeting in August 2017. Brockman described Musk growing angry during discussions about equity structure. When he didn’t get the terms he wanted, Musk stood up abruptly.

“He said he needed $80 billion to create a city on Mars,” Brockman testified. “In the end, he needed full control.”

Musk reportedly told the group he would decide when to relinquish that control.

The meeting, which had started on a positive note, Musk had recently given Teslas to several OpenAI employees, and former chief scientist Ilya Sutskever had painted a portrait of a Tesla as a gift, ended dramatically. According to Brockman, Musk grabbed the painting and stormed out, saying he would withhold further funding until the issues were resolved.

Musk left OpenAI’s board in February 2018. He has since accused Sam Altman and Brockman of misleading him when he contributed $38 million to the nonprofit, claiming they abandoned its original mission to enrich themselves through a for-profit structure.

Musk is seeking $150 billion in damages to be paid to the nonprofit and wants Altman and Brockman removed from their leadership positions. OpenAI has countered that Musk is bitter about leaving before the company’s explosive success and is using the lawsuit to benefit his own AI venture, xAI.

Brockman’s testimony also touched on personal financial motivations. On Monday, he disclosed that his stake in OpenAI is now worth nearly $30 billion. He also acknowledged holding stakes in two startups backed by Altman and a 1% stake in Altman’s family fund.

A 2017 diary entry shown in court revealed Brockman writing: “Financially, what will take me to $1B?”

OpenAI restructured in March 2019, creating a for-profit subsidiary controlled by the original nonprofit. That move allowed it to raise more than $100 billion from investors. The company is reportedly preparing for a potential $1 trillion initial public offering later this year.

OpenAI plans to spend $50 billion on computing resources alone in 2026, Brockman told the court, underscoring the enormous capital requirements that Musk had foreseen years earlier.

Musk’s deep interest in Mars colonization was further highlighted by details from SpaceX. According to a registration statement, SpaceX’s board approved a package in January granting Musk 200 million super-voting restricted shares if the company reaches a $7.5 trillion market value and successfully establishes a permanent colony on Mars with at least one million people.

SpaceX is also reportedly preparing for its own IPO later this year, potentially larger than OpenAI’s.

Musk’s lawyers have tried to portray Brockman as similarly motivated by financial gain. However, Brockman’s testimony framed Musk’s demands as driven by his broader ambitions for humanity’s future on Mars, rather than purely commercial interests in AI.

The trial, now in its second week, carries enormous stakes. A ruling against OpenAI could destabilize its leadership and force major changes to its structure at a critical time, as the company races to commercialize advanced AI models. A victory for Musk could set a precedent affecting how nonprofits transition to for-profit entities in the technology sector.

The case has also laid bare the deep personal and philosophical rifts that existed from OpenAI’s earliest days. What began as a collaborative nonprofit effort to ensure artificial intelligence benefits humanity has evolved into a fierce battle between some of Silicon Valley’s most powerful figures.

Musk has long warned about the existential risks of AI and originally co-founded OpenAI as a counterweight to Google. His departure and subsequent founding of xAI, which merged with SpaceX in February, reflect his determination to pursue his own vision for the technology.

The proceedings are expected to continue for several more weeks, with additional witnesses and evidence likely to shed more light on the contentious early years of one of the defining companies of the AI era. Whatever the outcome, the case has already exposed the complex mix of idealism, ambition, ego, and vast financial stakes that have shaped the development of transformative artificial intelligence.

Samsung Electronics crossed the $1 trillion market capitalization threshold on Wednesday, becoming only the second Asian company after Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company to achieve the milestone, as investors continue pouring money into companies seen as central to the artificial intelligence infrastructure boom.

The rally marks a dramatic turnaround for Samsung, whose shares have surged alongside a broader rebound in global semiconductor stocks fueled by exploding demand for AI computing power, memory chips, and advanced data-center infrastructure.

Samsung’s market value climbed to about 1,500 trillion won, or roughly $1.03 trillion, during early trading in Seoul. Its shares jumped 12%, sharply outperforming South Korea’s benchmark Kospi index, which rose 5.4%.

The move followed another powerful rally on Wall Street overnight, where the S&P 500 and Nasdaq closed at record highs as investors rotated aggressively back into AI-linked technology companies after stronger-than-expected earnings and signs that geopolitical tensions tied to the Iran conflict were not worsening further.

The latest surge also underscores how the AI race is rapidly redrawing the hierarchy of the global semiconductor industry.

For much of the past two years, investor enthusiasm centered primarily on AI accelerator makers such as Nvidia. But the market is now increasingly recognizing that AI systems require vast amounts of memory, storage, and advanced semiconductor manufacturing capacity, areas where Samsung plays a dominant role.

Samsung remains the world’s largest producer of memory chips, including high-bandwidth memory, or HBM, a critical component used alongside AI graphics processors in data centers powering generative AI systems.

As hyperscalers, including Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet, and Meta Platforms, ramp up spending on AI infrastructure, demand for advanced memory has exploded, creating one of the most profitable cycles the memory-chip industry has seen in years.

Industry analysts say AI has fundamentally changed the economics of the semiconductor market. Unlike traditional consumer electronics, AI servers require far larger quantities of high-performance memory and advanced packaging technologies, pushing up margins for suppliers capable of meeting the technical requirements.

That shift has triggered a sharp recovery in pricing power for memory manufacturers after years of cyclical downturns tied to weak smartphone and PC demand. Samsung’s trillion-dollar milestone is also seen as an indication of growing investor confidence that the company is regaining ground in the global AI supply chain after concerns last year that it was falling behind rivals in next-generation memory products.

The company has accelerated investment in HBM production and advanced packaging technologies as competition intensifies with South Korean rival SK Hynix and U.S. players seeking to capture the AI hardware boom.

It is all playing at the same time, geopolitical tensions are reshaping global chip investment flows. The U.S.-China technology conflict, combined with fears over potential supply disruptions involving Taiwan and the Iran war’s impact on global trade routes and energy markets, has pushed governments and corporations to diversify semiconductor supply chains more aggressively.

That environment has strengthened investor interest in companies viewed as strategically indispensable to global technology infrastructure. Samsung occupies a uniquely powerful position because it operates across multiple layers of the semiconductor ecosystem, including memory chips, foundry manufacturing, smartphones, consumer electronics, and AI-related components.

The company’s rise also highlights Asia’s continued dominance in semiconductor manufacturing even as the United States pours hundreds of billions of dollars into efforts to rebuild domestic chip production capacity.

Together, Samsung and TSMC now stand as the two most valuable companies in Asia, reflecting how semiconductor manufacturing has become one of the most strategically important industries in the global economy. The milestone comes during one of the strongest rallies technology stocks have experienced since the generative AI boom began. Investor optimism was further boosted this week after strong earnings and upbeat forecasts from major semiconductor companies, including Intel and Advanced Micro Devices, reinforced expectations that AI infrastructure spending remains in its early stages.

Wall Street analysts increasingly believe the current AI investment cycle could rival or exceed the scale of past technology booms tied to the internet, smartphones, and cloud computing.

Global AI-related capital expenditures are now expected to exceed $700 billion this year alone, spanning chips, data centers, networking systems, cloud platforms, and power infrastructure.

Samsung’s rapid climb illustrates how investors are broadening their bets beyond software and AI models toward the physical hardware backbone needed to sustain the industry’s expansion. The company’s valuation surge may also intensify pressure on rivals racing to secure dominance in what is becoming an increasingly crowded and geopolitically sensitive semiconductor market.

While enthusiasm around AI continues driving technology stocks higher, analysts warn that the next stage of competition will likely be determined by companies’ ability to secure manufacturing capacity, energy supply, advanced memory production, and global supply chains.