He lead corporate development at Microsoft, where he’s worked for almost 20 years. We saw this deposition earlier as part of Musk’s case. He did a bunch of the work on the 2021 and 2023 OpenAI deals. I believe he is here to talk about Microsoft’s due diligence and also to put the deal in context — “we’ve done over 100 transactions including acquisitions and investments,” in aggregate value of $100 billion.
He also doesn’t remember a bunch of things Musk’s lawyer is asking about. I fully believe him on this — feels like Scott’s only real interest is the tech. He was so happy talking about Azure and he is very lost talking about partnership agreements.
She seems confused by a CTO not knowing what revenue had been generated. Scott noted he was not the chief revenue officer. He seemed amused.
He has testified that the company liked the idea of partnering with OpenAI in part because it would show how to build out Azure for AI frontier research. It’s pleasantly boring.
He said he sometimes used strong language at work, but might have said something like, “Don’t be a jackass.” So in addition to being hilarious, the trophy also makes him look like a liar.
There is a trophy that OpenAI has brought in, that’s half of a donkey — the back half — and says, “Never stop being a jackass.” It’s a commemoration OpenAI employees bought for another employee that Musk called a jackass on the way out on his last day. Musk’s team does not want the trophy in evidence.
Elon Musk may have done more long-term reputational damage to the OpenAI CEO.