How Can Elon Musk Say “Big Tech” In OpenAI Trial With a Straight Face?

As his trial against OpenAI unfolds, Elon Musk has repeatedly warned about Big Tech and the concentration of power in AI, often pointing to companies like Microsoft and Google. At first glance, that sounds absurd. Elon's the richest person in the world (on paper). He runs multiple technology companies. He’s building his own AI firm. If anyone is Big Tech, it’s him. And yet - he can says it with a straight face. Because institutionally, he’s not in the same category. 1) Employee Scale: Entire Empires vs Founder Systems Microsoft: ~220,000+ employees Google (Alphabet): ~180,000+ employees Musk’s companies: Tesla: large (~100k+), but focused on manufacturing X: drastically smaller post-acquisition xAI: tiny by comparison Big Tech isn’t just wealth—it’s institutional mass. Microsoft and Google are global bureaucracies with deep layers of management and continuity. Musk runs what are essentially high-speed founder-led systems, not sprawling institutional states. 2) Cloud & Compute: The…