Most of what we see of Elon Musk and Sam Altman, two of Silicon Valley’s most powerful men, comes in the form of carefully curated personas.
Mr. Musk, who prefers to dress entirely in black, associates himself with rockets, home-brewed flamethrowers and even a .50 caliber sniper rifle. Mr. Altman aims for elder statesman vibes, posing for portraits as a kind of heir to Steve Jobs. Tech billionaires, it turns out, care about how the public sees them.
But a rancorous lawsuit between the two has provided a different glimpse of them. For the past two weeks, I’ve spent hours on the fourth floor of the Ronald V. Dellums federal courthouse in Oakland, Calif., loitering in wait for Mr. Musk and Mr. Altman as they face off in a backbiting trial over the artificial intelligence company they co-founded, OpenAI.
Mr. Musk’s lawsuit against Mr. Altman is important, with billions of dollars and the future of the A.I. industry at stake. But the case matters for another reason: It has given an up-close-and-personal look at how two men worth more than a combined $670 billion function under extreme pressure.
Mr. Musk, 54, appeared to have brought a squeezable stress ball along with him, clutching it while fidgeting during his testimony. Mr. Altman, 41, occasionally locked eyes with others while walking from the private witness area to the courtroom. (Mr. Musk has tended to stare at the floor.) And OpenAI’s president, Greg Brockman, 38, was surprisingly tall in person and almost always accompanied by his wife, Anna.
Think of the trial this way: It was like seeing the Wizard of Oz after Dorothy’s cairn terrier, Toto, reveals him.
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