Murati’s recorded testimony was played on Wednesday in Oakland, California, during Elon Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI.

Musk accuses the company of abandoning the nonprofit mission it started with and turning into a profit-driven business tied to Microsoft.

Speaking about Altman’s leadership, Murati said: “My concern was about Sam saying one thing to one person and completely the opposite to another person.” 

She added that he was “creating chaos” inside the company and, at times, was deceptive with her and other executives.

The testimony focused heavily on the leadership situation that shook OpenAI in November 2023. At the time, the board removed Sam Altman as chief executive before bringing him back just days later, while Mira Murati briefly served as interim CEO during that period.

She told the court she still wanted Altman to remain chief executive, although she pressed board members for clearer reasons behind the decision to remove him. At the same time, she warned that the company faced serious internal problems.

“OpenAI was at catastrophic risk of falling apart,” Murati said. “I was concerned about the company completely blowing up.”

Murati later left OpenAI in 2024 and went on to co-found Thinking Machines Lab.

Another former OpenAI board member, Shivon Zilis, also gave evidence in the case. Zilis said the board had “extreme concern” about the release of ChatGPT without proper communication with directors.

Asked whether concerns about Altman had been raised internally, Zilis replied: “There had been a couple of instances.”

Zilis now works at Elon Musk’s Neuralink and is also the mother of four of Musk’s children.

The lawsuit, filed by Musk in 2024, argues that OpenAI moved away from its original charitable purpose after receiving billions of dollars from Microsoft. Musk claims the company effectively became tied to Microsoft’s commercial interests instead of serving the public good.

Microsoft has invested more than $13 billion in OpenAI since 2019 and supplies the computing power behind products such as ChatGPT and Copilot through its Azure cloud platform.

Musk is seeking $150 billion in damages and wants the money directed to OpenAI’s charitable arm. He is also pushing for Altman’s removal and wants the company’s for-profit structure dissolved.

Court proceedings have also revealed challenges between OpenAI’s founders and executives over control of the company, its rapid growth and the race to develop artificial general intelligence, often called AGI.

Some witnesses told the court that the company reaching AGI first could gain enormous economic and political influence worldwide.

The case also reveals Musk’s competition with OpenAI. His own artificial intelligence company, xAI, has expanded rapidly and merged with SpaceX in 2026 in a deal that reportedly valued the combined business at about $250 billion.

During the trial, it also emerged that Musk tried to settle with OpenAI president Greg Brockman shortly before proceedings began. According to testimony, Musk warned that Altman and Brockman could become “the most hated men in America.”

Details about Schulman’s role in Murati’s new company are not yet revealed, but sources say that he is not the only former OpenAI employee to make the switch. Christian Gibson, who was part of OpenAI’s supercomputing team, is also said to have joined the venture.

Murati has been working on her own startup since leaving OpenAI in September 2024, and according to reports, she has been in discussions to raise over $100 million in funding. 

The company’s focus has not been publicly disclosed, but it is expected to be in the artificial intelligence space, given Murati’s background in AI development. Before her time at OpenAI, she worked at Tesla and Leap Motion, contributing to their AI and engineering efforts.

Schulman, who spent nearly a decade at OpenAI, left the company in August 2023, noting a desire to focus more on AI alignment—the field dedicated to ensuring AI systems operate as intended. 

Anthropic, a growing company in the AI industry, was founded by former OpenAI employees, and is known for developing Claude, a competitor to ChatGPT, which is boosting AI safety.

John Schulman has yet to make a public statement about his latest move, but his decision to follow Mira Murati implies a movement of top AI researchers branching out to build their own ventures. 

Other key figures, such as former OpenAI Chief Scientist Ilya Sutskever, have also left to establish their own startups, with Sutskever launching Safe Superintelligence (SSI) to focus on AI safety research.

On Wednesday, Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati, Vice President of Research Barret Zoph, and Chief Research Officer Bob McGrew shared their decisions to leave the company, posting updates on X (formerly known as Twitter).

OpenAI is currently engaged in discussions for a new funding round, reportedly seeking $6.5 billion, which would place the company’s valuation at approximately $150 billion. 

However, this investment is said to be contingent on OpenAI restructuring its corporate framework to transition into a for-profit benefit corporation, a move that could also see CEO Sam Altman receiving an equity stake.

Altman’s removal from OpenAI by its non-profit board in late 2023, due to internal disagreements, remains a sensitive issue, though he was reinstated shortly after.

The circumstances surrounding the exits of Murati, Zoph, and McGrew have not been fully disclosed, raising questions about whether their departures might impact the ongoing financing raise. 

Despite this, some sources indicate that Murati is still engaged with OpenAI, negotiating her departure after serving the company for over six years. During this time, she was key in developing fundamental products such as GPT-4 and held the CEO role briefly following Altman’s temporary ousting.

Murati, who joined OpenAI in 2018, pointed to personal reasons for stepping down, stating she wished to explore new opportunities. Before her role at OpenAI, she held senior positions at Leap Motion and Tesla, where she managed the development of their Model X vehicle.

Barret Zoph, who joined OpenAI in 2022, also announced his decision to seek new ventures, describing his departure as a natural progression in his career. Meanwhile, Bob McGrew, who had been with OpenAI for over seven years, shared that it was time for him to take a break after what he described as a “humbling and awe-inspiring journey” with the company.

These latest exits follow a string of other high-profile resignations, including co-founder John Schulman and Chief Scientist Ilya Sutskever, as OpenAI continues to navigate internal shifts while aiming to secure its place as a leader in artificial intelligence research and development.

Sam Altman, in response to Murati’s announcement, stated gratitude for her contributions and indicated that further details on leadership transition plans would be shared in due course. The timing of these departures comes just ahead of OpenAI’s annual developer conference, DevDay, adding further intrigue to the company’s ongoing evolution.

OpenAI’s leadership changes, though described by Altman as part of the natural progression of fast-growing companies, are raising questions, especially as the company moves towards a new governance structure and larger financial ambitions.