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Musk's behavior caused 'huge damage' to OpenAI: Sam Altman
13 May 2026

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has claimed that Elon Musk's behavior caused "huge damage" to the culture of his artificial intelligence start-up.

The revelation came during a testimony in Musk's lawsuit against OpenAI.

Altman claimed that Musk had asked OpenAI president Greg Brockman and chief scientist Ilya Sutskever to rate researchers based on their achievements and "take a chainsaw through a bunch."

Altman explains why Musk's approach didn't work
Management clash

Altman acknowledged that Musk's aggressive management style was well-known, but it didn't fit with the culture of his start-up.

"I don't think Mr. Musk understood how to run a good research lab," he said during his testimony.

He further explained that for a research lab where psychological safety and time to explore an idea are essential, Musk's approach of expecting quick results and threatening termination if they weren't up to par didn't work.

Musk left OpenAI in 2018 to avoid conflict of interest
Departure effects

Musk co-founded OpenAI in 2015 with Altman and Brockman but left the start-up in 2018.

At the time, it was said that Musk's exit was to avoid a conflict of interest with Tesla's machine learning work.

During the testimony, Altman said that Musk's departure "was a morale boost in some ways," letting employees know they no longer had to "work this way anymore."

Musk's lawsuit against OpenAI explained
Legal battle

Musk's lawsuit claims that OpenAI has strayed from its original mission of benefiting humanity. He also alleges that Altman and Brockman deceived him into investing in the start-up.

The trial is now in its third week with testimonies from several important witnesses including Brockman, former OpenAI board member Shivon Zilis, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, and former CTO Mira Murati.