Elon Musk’s Lawyers Claim He ‘Does Not Use a Computer’

Elon Musk’s lawyers claimed that he “does not use a computer” in a Sunday court filing related to his lawsuit against Sam Altman and OpenAI. However, Musk has posted pictures or referred to his laptop on X several times in recent months, and public evidence suggests that he owns and appears to use at least one computer.

Musk and his artificial intelligence startup xAI sued OpenAI in February 2024, alleging the company committed breach of contract by abandoning its founding agreement to develop AI “for the benefit of humanity,” choosing instead “to maximize profits for Microsoft.”

The Sunday court filing was submitted in opposition to a Friday filing from OpenAI, which accused Musk and xAI of failing to fully comply with the discovery process. OpenAI alleges that Musk’s counsel does not plan to collect any documents from him. In this weekend’s filing, Musk’s lawyers claim that they told OpenAI on June 14 that they were “conducting searches of Mr. Musk’s mobile phone, having searched his emails, and that Mr. Musk does not use a computer.”

Musk and xAI Corp’s lawyers did not immediately respond to requests for comment. In the filing, Musk's legal team disputed claims that it was resisting discovery efforts.

Multiple employees at X tell WIRED that while Musk primarily works from his mobile phone, he has occasionally been seen using a laptop.

Musk has also made public statements in the recent past about computers he appears to own. In December 2024, Musk posted a picture of a laptop on X with a caption that begins, “This is a pic of my laptop.” The post, made in reply to a 15-minute stream of a game from the Diablo video game series, claims that he was “testing Starlink streaming while in flight,” suggesting that he was possibly using the laptop for professional purposes. Musk has streamed more than 10 times since August 2024, showing what appears to be the desktop layout of the game, usually saying that he is doing so to test Starlink’s streaming capacity.

Musk has also made more recent references to what appears to be the same laptop. In May 2025, Musk said on X that he is “still using my ancient PC laptop with the @DOGE sticker made long ago by a fan.” The post was in reply to a user who asked what his gaming set-up is and whether it’s a “full gaming PC.” That user had been replying to a different 15-minute stream of Diablo.

The picture Musk posted in reply shows a black laptop with Aero branding, a style of computer that typically runs Windows and is popular with gamers, with a sticker of a dollar bill edited in homage to the memecoin “Doge.” (The memecoin later appears to have inspired the name of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency.) Musk says in the same post that the laptop is three years old and that the sticker was given to him by a man in Germany.

Earlier, on February 25, 2024, Musk claimed in a post on X that he had “just bought a new PC laptop” but said that he was unable to use it without creating a Microsoft account, which he didn’t want to do. He implied that he did not want to allow the company’s AI to get access to his computer. (Windows 11, the most recent Microsoft operating system, has several AI-powered features for certain devices. At least one of these features that was announced in early 2024 learns from a user’s activity history.) The next day, he replied to an X post from Microsoft chair and CEO Satya Nadella reiterating his complaint from the previous day.

“Satya, I don’t mean to be a pest, but please allow people setting up a new Windows PC to skip creating a Microsoft account,” Musk said.

In November 2022, during his tumultuous takeover of Twitter (now known as X), the mogul posted a picture of what appears to be a computer screen showing the interface of Mastodon, a rival federated social network. Musk later deleted the post.

In a response to a question about his choice of computer in July 2021, Musk wrote on X that he uses a “PC desktop with latest graphics card, although I have a Mac too. Gigabyte laptop.”

Musk’s office in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington appeared to contain a gaming PC. A photo of the PC is partially visible in a March video stream of the All-In Podcast, during which venture capitalist and podcast cohost David Friedberg showed photos he took during a visit to Washington, DC.

OpenAI declined to comment and referred WIRED to its own filings related to the ongoing lawsuit.