Sam Altman says Elon Musk’s mind games were damaging OpenAI

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FollowSee All PolicySam Altman says Elon Musk’s mind games were damaging OpenAIMusk’s departure from OpenAI was a ‘morale boost,’ according to Altman. Musk’s departure from OpenAI was a ‘morale boost,’ according to Altman. by Emma Roth Emma RothNews WriterPosts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.

Technical Details

FollowSee All by Emma RothMay 12, 2026, 5:34 PM UTC Part OfLive updates from Elon Musk and Sam Altman’s court battle over the future of OpenAIsee all updates Emma Roth Emma RothPosts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. FollowSee All by Emma Roth is a news writer who covers the streaming wars, consumer tech, crypto, social media, and much more. Previously, she was a writer and editor at MUO.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says Elon Musk did “huge damage” to the culture of the AI startup. During testimony as part of Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI, Altman said Musk required OpenAI president Greg Brockman and former chief scientist Ilya Sutskever to rank researchers by their accomplishments and “take a chainsaw through a bunch. ”Altman conceded that this was the management style the Tesla CEO was known for, but that it was incompatible with his startup.

Musk understood how to run a good research lab,” Altman testified when his lawyer, William Savitt, asked about the impact of Musk’s departure from OpenAI on morale. “For a research lab where people need, sort of, psychological safety and long periods of time to pursue an idea, this idea that you constantly have to show your results, and if they’re not good enough on a short period, you’re going to get fired. That really didn’t work for the kind of research we went on to successfully do.

Industry Implications

”Musk cofounded OpenAI in 2015 with Altman and Brockman, but the billionaire left the startup in 2018. At the time, OpenAI said Musk was leaving to avoid a conflict of interest with the machine learning work done by Tesla, though testimony is painting a different picture. RelatedElon Musk’s worst enemy in court is Elon MuskMira Murati tells the court that she couldn’t trust Sam Altman’s wordsAltman added that Musk’s departure “was a morale boost in some ways,” as staff members realized they didn’t have to “work this way anymore.

” Musk’s lawsuit claims OpenAI abandoned its original mission of benefitting humanity, and that Altman and Brockman tricked him into providing funding for the startup. The trial has entered its third week, and we’ve seen testimony from several key figures, including Brockman, former OpenAI board member Shivon Zillis, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, and former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati.

This advance offers important signals about the future of the sector, and the tech world is watching closely.