The trial evidence and testimony in the Musk v. Altman case reconstruct the full role of Mira Murati, former CTO of OpenAI (now founder of AI startup Thinking Machines Lab), in the 2023 November coup: she was the driving force behind the ousting, and the first to sign a petition calling for Altman’s return after the tides turned.

The roots of the conflict predate the coup by a year. A confidential internal document from September 2022 reveals that Murati directly submitted a list of grievances to Altman. At the time, OpenAI’s top priority was $100M in revenue, and Altman’s stance was “achieve it at any cost.” But Murati wrote: “Building what users want is not in OpenAI’s DNA.” A genomics-focused company pressured to chase revenue found its execs caught in the middle. She complained that Altman constantly shifted priorities, instilled panic, and alternated between demanding “we’re not fast enough” and saying “I’m not sure what’s going on—maybe I’m wrong,” effectively pressuring the team with incomplete information.

By 2023, Murati began systematically providing screenshots, Slack logs, and internal documents to co-founder Sutskever, informing him that Altman had management issues dating back to YC. Sutskever compiled this into a 52-page memo presented to the board. In another courtroom testimony, Murati claimed Altman also lied to her about AI safety review protocols: he asserted legal counsel deemed a certain model exempt from safety committee review, but upon verifying with Chief Legal Officer Jason Kwon, she discovered the claim was false and independently submitted the model for review. Former director Toner testified that the materials provided by Murati and Sutskever “significantly influenced” the board’s decision.

On November 16, four directors unanimously signed the termination document. Murati was appointed interim CEO and proactively volunteered to notify Microsoft CEO Nadella.

The court released 78 text messages between Murati and Altman, spanning from Sunday evening to Monday morning. While relaying the board’s hardline position—“they don’t care if everyone resigns”—and emphasizing they only wanted to prevent Altman from touching AGI, she also told Altman: “Hope Nadella can help reverse this.” As interim CEO appointed by the board, she was already covertly seeking external support for the very person she had helped remove.

The turning point came when Murati concluded the board could not hold firm. On Sunday, the board issued a statement reaffirming its support for the ouster. Murati texted Nadella: “I won’t sign this.” Early Monday morning, she alerted Microsoft CTO Kevin Scott: “The board is about to resign.” Scott replied: “This is real?” She responded: “Looks like it—Ilya signed our petition.” Soon after, 750 employees jointly demanded the board step down and Altman’s reinstatement—the first signature on the petition being Murati herself.

Toner’s testimony was blunt: after Altman’s dismissal, Murati was “uncooperative” and “extremely passive,” refusing to disclose to her team that her conversations with the board had significantly driven the decision. She was the only person capable of legitimizing the move—but chose not to speak up. As a result, employees believed this was a sudden external attack by a few outside directors, quickly rallying behind Altman. Toner’s exact words: “She was waiting to see which way the wind was blowing—but she didn’t realize she was the wind itself.”

Behind-the-scenes provision of incriminating materials to trigger the ouster, refusal to endorse the decision afterward while secretly lobbying Microsoft, and finally leading the petition demanding Altman’s return—Murati remained aligned solely with herself throughout the entire coup.

Original: BlockBeats