Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla Inc. (TSLA), reportedly joined President Donald Trump on his trip to China without asking permission from the judge overseeing the OpenAI trial. According to NBC News, citing anonymous sources, Musk failed to seek clearance from U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers before leaving the country, even though she had placed him on a "recall status" order.
A recall status means Musk is supposed to be available to testify again on short notice. But here's the nuance: the judge didn't explicitly tell him not to travel or leave the country. So Musk's trip might only become a problem if he's called back to the witness stand. For now, it's a potential headache, not a guaranteed crisis.
This trial, happening in Oakland, California, is Musk's own doing. He sued OpenAI and its co-founder Sam Altman, accusing them of abandoning the company's original nonprofit mission after Musk poured millions into it. Musk testified that he contributed roughly $38 million, plus significant personal support, based on Altman's promises that OpenAI would stay nonprofit.
Altman, meanwhile, defended OpenAI's for-profit arm under oath. He also claimed that Musk's push to rank researchers by accomplishments did serious damage to OpenAI's culture. Altman added that Musk knew about the for-profit plans before leaving the board in 2018 and had even sought a 90% stake in OpenAI at one point.
Former OpenAI chief scientist Ilya Sutskever also testified, saying he spent about a year gathering evidence to show Altman's alleged dishonesty.
Neither Musk nor the court immediately responded to requests for comment. For now, Musk is in China with Trump, and the judge's recall order is just a piece of paper—until it isn't.
