Elon Musk in Court: Flat, Unprepared, and Mostly Talking About Himself

Today the first witness was sworn in in Musk v. Altman: Elon Musk. And I’ll be honest — I was surprised by how flat he seemed.

This isn’t the first time I’ve seen Musk testify. During his defamation suit a few years back, he turned on the charm, cracked jokes, and the jury responded by finding him not guilty. That guy was a performer. Today’s Musk looked adrift, fumbling through questions, and generally unprepared. The only times he showed real animation were when he was bragging about how much he’d done for OpenAI.

Here’s the thing: direct examination is a way of telling a story through questions. You have to make the narrative clear and compelling. But for a suit that accuses Sam Altman of straying from OpenAI’s mission, Musk spent a weird amount of time talking about himself. He recounted his own contributions, his own vision, his own grievances. It felt less like a legal argument and more like a rambling monologue.

I get it — he’s the plaintiff, and he’s the center of his own story. But if the goal was to convince a jury that Altman betrayed the founding mission, you’d think Musk would focus on Altman’s actions, not his own resume. Instead, he came off as petty and defensive, not as a visionary wronged.

It’s early days in this trial, and Musk’s testimony isn’t over yet. But first impressions matter, and this one wasn’t good. If I were on the jury, I’d be wondering why the guy with all the money and power seems so rattled by someone he once hired.