Sam Altman’s testimony at Elon Musk’s OpenAI trial takes odd turn

We knew that Elon Musk’s lawsuit against the co-founders of OpenAI would be fireworks when it came to trial. When Sam Altman took the stand, as the OpenAI CEO did, in federal court in Oakland, California, on Tuesday, we knew he would face charges of being less than truthful.

However, what we didn’t know was that Altman would deploy the memory of Elon Musk, featuring his favorite memes, to surprisingly strategic effect. Or that the “crossed fingers” emoji will take on new meaning.

Or, in perhaps the most dramatic moment of the trial, Altman will be confronted on whether he lied to the Senate when he said he had no financial stake in OpenAI.

Here are four of the most memorable claims on the most important day in court:

1. Musk ‘disappointed’ OpenAI – and wanted it for himself

Altman faced friendly questioning from OpenAI’s lawyers for the first time, allowing him to present his side of the story. It was an opportunity for them to tell the story of the ChatGPIT creator’s crucial early years, and how Musk contributed — that is, how big a threat Musk’s involvement was to the nascent nonprofit.

“I don’t think Mr. Musk understood how to run a good research lab,” Altman said. “He had discouraged some of our most prominent researchers.” How? By getting his co-founders ranked based on their accomplishments – known as “stack ranking” in Silicon Valley – then taking “a chainsaw” to lower-level researchers.

In other words, the same play Musk used on Twitter before X in 2023 and on DOGE in 2025 – a practice that stuck with him so much, he was literally presented with a chainsaw. “This caused huge long-term damage to the culture of the organization,” Altman said.

Altman said, despite Musk being a “fairly fickle” co-founder, he was also interested in acquiring OpenAI for himself — or for his heirs. In a “hair-raising moment”, Musk considered whether “maybe OpenAI should pass on to my kids” if he died, Altman said.

2. Musk was more interested in ‘memes’ than the future of OpenAI

Altman then testified that he kept Musk fully informed about the company, even after Musk left in 2018. But Musk had no concerns about how OpenAI would finance the large-scale computations required, Altman said.

Altman described a meeting with Musk in 2018 about Microsoft’s funding, which Musk now dislikes. But at the time, Musk was unusually full of “good vibes,” Altman said, and “had a long, long conversation while showing us memes on his phone.”

The court stenographer apparently had difficulty understanding Altman’s use of “memes”, leading to one of the most unintentionally comedic moments of the trial:

mashable light speed

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The above emoji arrived shortly after, and it also had a surprising effect on the matter.

Altman described an email he wrote to former OpenAI employee Shivon Zilis, with whom Musk has a romantic relationship and has two children, as showing that he was concerned about how Musk would receive Microsoft’s investment.

“Hopefully it’s easy,” he told Zillis, adding a “crossed fingers emoji” for emphasis. And if Altman is to be believed, it was.

But hidden in this is the question which dominated the court till afternoon: Is Is Altman to be believed?

3. ‘Are you completely trustworthy?’

This is how Musk’s lawyer Steven Molloy began his cross-examination of Altman. “I believe I am a truthful person,” Altman responded.

Molloy tried to hold Altman to the objective truth of his credibility. But Altman wasn’t getting angry, just stuck to what he had said.

Molloy also tried to get Altman on the record about a devastating profile of him written by Ronan Farrow New YorkerThe gist of which is that Altman is a serial liar who was fired by the board of OpenAI in 2023 for this very reason.

But Altman’s attorney objected, the judge sustained the objection, and Mollo was only able to alert the jury to the existence of the article.

4. Altman’s OpenAI stake comes under scrutiny

Mollo was more successful when he suggested that Altman was being slippery about his financial stake – and not just in OpenAI.

Musk’s lawyer showed a slide with a list of companies with which OpenAI does business and in which Altman has invested, which also includes Reddit. Some companies were acquired by OpenAI.

But that suggestion of self-dealing pales in comparison to what Altman admitted for the first time: He has equity in OpenAI, although he had an indirect stake through YCombinator, the Silicon Valley startup incubator he ran.

As Molo and online observers quickly noted, this appears to contradict Altman’s sworn testimony in the U.S. Senate in 2023. “I have no equity in OpenAI,” Altman told GOP Senator John Kennedy, insisting that he was only paid “enough for health insurance.”

At the time, Kennedy apparently offered some friendly advice to help the selfless OpenAI chief get his due. “You need a lawyer,” he told Altman.

Given that GOP members of the House Oversight Committee recently launched an investigation into Altman’s financial dealings, Kennedy’s advice will play out differently in 2026. Even after this case ends, Altman’s lawyers will have their work cut out for them.