May 14, 2026
The trial between Elon Musk and OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman, reached closing arguments on Thursday. A key moment during closing arguments from Musk’s legal team, which includes Steven Molo and the notoriously tough (and often successful in court) Marc Toberoff, addressed the repeated claim that Altman is not trusted by many of his former colleagues.
Musk’s team invoked the names of former OpenAI executives Ilya Sutskever and Mira Murati and their testimony detailing their belief that Altman’s behavior had been repeatedly dishonest at the AI startup. That claim is at least part of what Musk’s team is hinging its case on regarding the notion that the Tesla and SpaceX founder was deceived as an early investor in OpenAI as it moved from a non-profit to a for-profit Public Benefit Corporation (PBC). During his closing, Molo restated Musk’s belief that the Altman-led OpenAI was in “breach of charitable trust” that the company was founded upon.
Additionally, Musk’s team apologized to the jury for his absence as he travels with President Trump to China on a diplomatic trip. Then, Molo painted a picture designed to colorfully frame the behavior of Altman and his management of OpenAI and AI in general.
“Imagine that you’re on a hike, and you come upon one of those wooden bridges that you see on a trail, and it’s over a gorge,” said Molo. “There’s a river that’s 100 feet below, and it looks a little scary, but a woman standing by the entry to the bridge says, ‘Don’t worry, the bridge is built on Sam Altman’s version of the truth.’ Would you walk across that bridge? I don’t think many people would.”
The trial is still ongoing, and despite Musk’s aggressive AI moves in the last couple of years with xAI, the framing his legal team has crafted around Altman doesn’t look good for the current CEO of OpenAI.
