Sam Altman's closest former allies have painted him as a pathological liar under oath at the Musk v. OpenAI trial, with testimony from ex-colleagues proving far more damaging to the CEO than anything Elon Musk has alleged.
OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever told the court Monday that he wrote a 2023 memo to the board characterizing Altman as exhibiting a "consistent pattern of lying" that caused a loss of trust and productivity. When Musk's lawyer Steven Molo asked Sutskever whether he had told the board Altman was "pitting his execs against one another," Sutskever answered simply: "Yes." The trial, now in its third week in federal court in Oakland, has forced OpenAI to publicly confront the messiest parts of its corporate history. And the testimony hitting closest to home isn't coming from Musk, who spent three combative days on the stand.
It's coming from Altman's own former team.
Mira Murati, OpenAI's former chief technical officer and once a close Altman associate, accused him of "creating chaos" at the company in video testimony played for jurors last week. She described a pattern of "saying one thing to one person and completely the opposite to another person."
Former board members Helen Toner and Tasha McCauley backed the ouster narrative. Toner testified that the decision to fire Altman in 2023 stemmed from a "pattern of behavior related to his honesty and candor, his resistance of board oversight." McCauley alleged Altman caused "repeated crisis events" through his leadership.
Altman took the stand Tuesday to defend himself, telling the jury "I believe I am an honest and trustworthy businessperson." His demeanor was calm throughout roughly four hours of testimony, a stark contrast to Musk's open clashes with OpenAI's lawyer William Savitt. The Helion factor added another dimension. Altman confirmed under cross-examination that he owns roughly one-third of the fusion startup Helion Energy, a stake valued at approximately $1.65 billion as of late 2025.
Financial disclosures showed he holds more than $2 billion in companies that do business with OpenAI. Molo also pressed him on negotiating a $200 million data deal with Reddit while holding a significant personal stake in the social media company. The conflict-of-interest questions extend beyond the courtroom. The House Oversight Committee sent Altman a letter May 8 requesting documents on OpenAI's handling of potential conflicts, and a group of Republican state attorneys general separately called on the SEC to scrutinize the issue ahead of OpenAI's planned IPO, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Altman described being "completely caught off guard" when the board ousted him in 2023. He said he seriously considered walking away and taking Microsoft's offer to lead an AI research wing where he could get rich.
Instead he returned, saying he was "willing to run back into a burning building" to save the company.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella testified Monday that the OpenAI board never gave him a clear reason for firing Altman, calling the episode "amateur city as far as I'm concerned."
Musk is seeking the removal of Altman and Brockman, $134 billion to be redistributed to OpenAI's non-profit arm, and the undoing of the company's for-profit structure. Closing arguments are set for Thursday.
