Sam Altman testified on Tuesday in the Musk v. Altman trial, facing hours of cross-examination from Elon Musk's lawyers over allegations of deceptive behavior and undisclosed financial conflicts.
Musk's legal team, led by attorney Steven Molo, opened with a direct challenge: "Are you completely trustworthy?" followed by an immediate question about whether the jury should believe Altman's testimony. Altman responded carefully, declining to tell jurors what to think.
Molo then walked through a series of accusations from former colleagues—including Musk himself, former OpenAI chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, former CTO Mira Murati, former board member Tasha McCauley, and Anthropic cofounders Dario and Daniela Amodei. The cross-examination reached back 15 years to Altman's tenure at Loopt, a location-sharing startup, resurfacing allegations that he misrepresented the company's daily active user count. Altman attempted to evade specifics, asking Molo to cite exact testimonies and claiming ignorance of certain claims.
When pressed on his current financial interests, Altman confirmed stakes that intersect directly with OpenAI's business: a nearly $2 billion equity position in nuclear startup Helion (which signed a 2024 energy agreement with OpenAI, contingent on Helion achieving commercial fusion), a $600 million stake in Stripe, plus investments in Reddit and Cerebras—each with OpenAI partnerships. The disclosures arrive days after a House oversight committee requested Altman provide more information on potential conflicts of interest.
In his direct testimony, Altman framed himself as an entrepreneur long concerned with AI's concentration of power. He recounted what he called "a particularly hair-raising moment" when Musk proposed that control of OpenAI should pass to Musk's children in the event of his death. "We didn't feel comfortable with that," Altman testified. He also characterized Musk's 2018 offer to run a Tesla AI unit as a "vague, lightweight threat."
Meanwhile, the underlying legal case faces structural headwinds. Musk's complaint alleges Altman effectively converted the OpenAI nonprofit—seeded with Musk's $38 million donation—into a for-profit entity now valued above $850 billion. But testimony on Tuesday suggested the donation carried no explicit conditions, and the statute of limitations may have already expired. Musk made his last donation years before filing suit, potentially placing the case outside the window for legal recourse.