The fourth day of the trial in Oakland brought an explosive admission. Greg Brockman, OpenAI’s president and the closest associate of company CEO Sam Altman, confirmed before the jury that his stake in the artificial intelligence company is worth nearly $30 billion. He also admitted that he had not invested a single dollar of his own in the company.
Why Musk Is Suing OpenAI
OpenAI was founded in 2015 as a nonprofit organization. Its main benefactor? Elon Musk, who contributed approximately $38 million to the project. The goal was to develop artificial intelligence for the benefit of humanity, without pursuing profit. But the company changed over time. Today, OpenAI is valued at $852 billion and competes with other major technology giants over ChatGPT, the world’s best-known artificial intelligence product. Musk left the company in 2018 and had stopped contributing a year earlier.
Musk filed the lawsuit in 2024. He claims that Altman and Brockman betrayed the company’s original mission and turned a charitable organization into a profit-making machine for their own benefit. That is why the future of one of the world’s most influential technology companies is now being decided in federal court in Oakland, California.
The Mission Has Not Changed, Says Billionaire Who Invested Nothing
Musk’s lead attorney, Steven Molo, had Brockman confirm that his stake in OpenAI had climbed to nearly $30 billion, even though he had invested nothing in the company himself. Brockman received the stake from OpenAI’s board in 2018, long before ChatGPT conquered the world. “Compensation has always been secondary to the mission for me,” Brockman told the jury. Molo immediately confronted him: “You just happen to find yourself $30 billion richer?”
Brockman stood his ground. He argued that in 2018, it was far from certain whether OpenAI would ever be financially successful. ChatGPT did not exist at the time. The board approved his stake, and he did not participate in the vote. “This is something we built with blood, sweat, and tears over all those years since Elon left,” Brockman said in court.
The Financial Network Linking Brockman to Altman
Musk’s team also uncovered other financial ties in court. Brockman holds a stake in Altman’s family fund, which Altman gave him in 2017 as compensation for his work at OpenAI. At the time, it was worth $10 million. He also owns shares in payment company Stripe worth $471 million, where he worked as chief technology officer before OpenAI, as well as a stake in cloud company CoreWeave, which has a contract with OpenAI.
Musk’s adviser Jared Birchall, the manager of his family fund, wrote about this in an email to Musk as early as 2017: “Naturally, Greg will have greater loyalty to Sam as a result of this arrangement.” Musk forwarded the email to Brockman with two question marks. Molo made full use of this connection. He suggested that Brockman had a financial reason to side with Altman rather than Musk.
A Diary, Promises, and $100,000 That Never Arrived
The questioning also brought several uncomfortable moments. Molo presented entries from Brockman’s personal diary from 2017, in which he wrote: “Financially, what gets me to a billion?” Brockman defended himself by saying it was an expression of frustration, not a plan.
An email that Brockman sent to then-Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer in 2014 was also introduced. In it, he wrote about a new project with donors such as Elon Musk, Reid Hoffman, and Peter Thiel, adding that he would personally donate $100,000. He told other potential donors the same thing. But the donation never came.
“Did you consider it morally questionable to claim that you would personally donate $100,000 and then not do so?” Molo asked directly. Brockman did not provide a specific answer.
Two days before the trial began, Musk sent Brockman a message. He wanted to determine whether there was room for an out-of-court settlement. Brockman proposed that both sides withdraw their lawsuits. Musk’s response, included in an OpenAI court filing: “By the end of this week, you and Sam will be the most hated men in America. If you insist on proceeding, that is what will happen.”
$30 Billion and a Duty to Humanity
Molo asked questions about the $30 billion more than a dozen times during two hours of questioning. At one point, he asked directly: “Do you believe that your nearly $30 billion stake violates your duty to humanity?” “No. I believe we have built the best-funded nonprofit organization in human history,” Brockman replied.
Molo continued to press him: If the goal was one million, why did he keep the additional $29 billion? Had Brockman changed the rules to enrich himself? “That is not how I think about it,” Brockman replied.
Nevertheless, his stake now places Brockman, who operates in the technology world in the shadow of the more prominent Musk and Altman, among approximately the 80th to 90th richest people in the world according to the Forbes ranking. He is not yet listed there himself.
Brockman is expected to continue his testimony on Tuesday. Shivon Zilis, a former OpenAI board member and the mother of four of Musk’s children, is also expected to testify. Sam Altman is scheduled to appear in court during the week beginning May 11.
Meanwhile, the court confirmed what Brockman stated in his testimony: OpenAI is considering going public through an initial public offering (IPO).
Sources: nbcnews.com, apnews.com and businessinsider.com
