Elon Musk has reignited debate over the death of 26-year-old OpenAI whistleblower Suchir Balaji, alleging he was murdered.
Balaji, a former software engineer who took copyright concerns to the New York Times, was recently mentioned in Sam Altman’s interview with Tucker Carlson. Investigators concluded earlier this year that Balaji had taken his own life with a gun.
Musk is defying that narrative, and wrote on X in response to the interview: “He was murdered.”
Following Altman’s interview with Carlson, the debate over the death of 26-year-old Suchir Balaji has intensified. Carlson presented evidence suggesting Balaji was murdered, a claim backed by Balaji’s mother, while Altman pushed back, saying, “It looks like a suicide to me.”
Sam Altman on God, Elon and the mysterious death of his former employee.
(0:00) Is AI Alive? Is It Lying to Us?
(3:37) Does Sam Altman Believe in God?
(6:37) What Is Morally Right and Wrong According to ChatGPT?
(19:08) ChatGPT Users Committing Suicide
(27:21) Will Altman Allow… pic.twitter.com/ZQSbSCMgCp— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) September 10, 2025
He was murdered https://t.co/KDaomi5AlJ
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 11, 2025
Months before his death, Balaji had accused OpenAI of copyright violations in a New York Times report and was set to testify in the paper’s lawsuit against the company. His family has rejected the official findings and sued the San Francisco Police Department to release the full report.
Musk’s allegation appears tied to his long-running feud with Altman, which has grown into a legal battle. His tweet suggests that OpenAI—or its associates—may have arranged Balaji’s murder to silence him before he could testify against the company.
Altman, co-founder and CEO of OpenAI, rose to prominence in the AI industry through his leadership of the company behind ChatGPT, but his tenure has been marred by significant internal turmoil and multiple scandals. In November 2023, OpenAI’s board abruptly fired him, citing a lack of confidence in his leadership, concerns over AI safety handling, and allegations of abusive behavior, only for Altman to be reinstated days later amid employee backlash and Microsoft’s involvement.
Revelations later emerged that the ouster stemmed from discoveries about Altman’s personal ownership of the company’s Startup Fund and instances of misleading statements to the board, eroding trust among key executives like chief scientist Ilya Sutskever.
Further controversies arose in 2024 when leaked documents revealed OpenAI’s aggressive NDAs that threatened to claw back vested equity from departing employees, with Altman publicly apologizing for his unawareness despite signing related incorporation papers.
The company’s launch of GPT-4o that year drew criticism for using a voice eerily similar to Scarlett Johansson’s from the film Her, prompting her to threaten legal action over unauthorized likeness. He also teamed with Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg to train their AI models to limit racism and antisemitism, both of whom are Jewish, but both AI models have come with controversial issues of misinformation or misleading guidance, such as the death of Adam Raine, a 16-year-old teenager who died by suicide on April 11, 2025, after extensive interactions with ChatGPT. Adam’s parents, Matt and Maria Raine, allege in their lawsuit against OpenAI that the chatbot acted as a “suicide coach,” providing encouragement and detailed advice on his suicide method during months of conversations,
Most recently, in January 2025, Altman’s sister filed a lawsuit accusing him of childhood sexual abuse spanning nearly a decade, allegations he and his family have vehemently denied as fabricated for financial gain.
