Jakarta - The trial regarding the lawsuit filed by Elon Musk against OpenAI continues. This time, it was Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella's turn to testify in court.
Nadella concluded his testimony after being questioned for several hours. He answered questions about Microsoft's early relationship with OpenAI and his role when Sam Altman was fired from his position as OpenAI CEO.
Microsoft has been one of OpenAI's largest supporters since 2019, long before its popularity skyrocketed following the launch of ChatGPT. To date, Microsoft has invested more than USD 13 billion in OpenAI.
Nadella admitted he was very proud that Microsoft took the risk to invest in OpenAI when no one else was willing to support the AI laboratory, which was still very new at the time.
Musk is suing OpenAI, Altman, and its president Greg Brockman, alleging they broke their promise to protect the non-profit corporate structure. Microsoft is mentioned in the lawsuit because Musk accuses the software giant of assisting and supporting OpenAI in committing these violations.
Musk, who testified last week, stated that the USD 10 billion investment poured by Microsoft into OpenAI in 2023 was a turning point that made him believe OpenAI violated its mission as a non-profit company.
According to Nadella, Microsoft's investment in OpenAI was not a donation, and there were clear commercial elements in the partnership between the two companies.
He added that Microsoft provided significant discounts to OpenAI for using its computing resources, and Microsoft believed it would profit from this arrangement.
Nadella was also asked about his reaction to Altman's firing as OpenAI CEO in November 2023, after the board of directors decided he was inconsistent in his communications. Altman later returned to the position after several days of intense negotiations.
Nadella admitted he was quite surprised by the board's decision, and his priority was finding a way to continue serving Microsoft's customers. After Altman was fired, Nadella said he tried to find more information and suspected there was jealousy and poor communication behind it.
"Every time I asked specifically why Sam was fired, (the board) never gave me a specific answer," Nadella said, as quoted from the Financial Times, Tuesday (5/12/2026).
"In my opinion, this was very amateur," he added.
