Shivon Zilis Testifies: Musk Offered Altman Tesla Board Seat to Merge OpenAI into Tesla

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Former OpenAI board member Shivon Zilis testified at the Musk v. Altman trial that Elon Musk offered Sam Altman a Tesla board seat circa late 2017 as part of a proposal to make OpenAI a subsidiary of Tesla. Zilis, who has four children with Musk, said she served as a liaison between Musk, Altman, Brockman, and Sutskever during corporate structure negotiations that were debated 'ad nauseam.' She eventually resigned from OpenAI's board in 2023 as word spread of Musk starting a competitor.