A newly filed court document reveals that Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, privately consulted Shivon Zilis, one of Elon Musk’s closest confidantes, about whether he should publicly praise Musk on X — the social media platform formerly known as Twitter — amid their growing public rift. The message, sent on February 9, 2023, shows Altman seeking advice before posting a conciliatory tweet just days later. According to the court filing, Altman asked Zilis: “BTW, good idea for me to tweet something nice about Elon? Have been meaning to do this after he DMd about not being in the photo from the first day of OpenAI. Just about how much I and others look up to him, how critical his early contributions to OpenAI are, etc.” Less than a week later, Altman posted on X: “society underestimates how much it owes elon for raising the collective ambition level at a time when optimism for the future was receding.” The revelation underscores the deliberate nature of Altman’s public gesture, which many interpreted as an effort to mend fences with Musk after a years-long deterioration in their relationship. Musk had been increasingly critical of OpenAI’s shift toward a for-profit model, accusing the company of abandoning its original nonprofit mission to develop artificial general intelligence for the benefit of all humanity. Zilis, who has four children with Musk and has served as director of operations and special projects at Neuralink, was a key figure in Musk’s inner circle. Her communications were included in the legal filings as part of Musk’s case against Altman and OpenAI, which alleges that the company deviated from its founding principles. The court documents trace the roots of the conflict back to 2016, when Musk was deeply involved in OpenAI’s early operations, pushing for more aggressive action and warning that competitors were outpacing the team. By September 2017, frustration had reached a breaking point. In an email exchange filed as Exhibit 41, Musk declared he would no longer fund OpenAI unless the team committed to either staying nonprofit or going independent. Altman responded the next day, reaffirming his support for the nonprofit structure. That pattern — Altman seeking to calm tensions while Musk grew more impatient — repeated over the years. Musk stepped down from OpenAI’s board in 2018 and later launched xAI, openly criticizing OpenAI’s direction. The February 2023 message to Zilis appears to be another attempt to manage the fallout from that estrangement. The case, filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of California, remains ongoing. The release of the Zilis message and other internal communications offers rare insight into the private dynamics between two of Silicon Valley’s most prominent figures, highlighting how personal relationships and strategic messaging shape the evolution of AI’s most influential organizations.