Two days earlier As Musk’s lawsuit against Altman began, Elon Musk asked OpenAI co-founder and CEO Greg Brockman about reaching a settlement. When Brockman suggested both sides drop their claims, Musk responded: “By the end of this week, you and Sam [Altman] They will be the most hated people in America. If you insist, so be it.
Message— which OpenAI’s lawyers made public on Sunday, and which Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers subsequently refused to let the jury hear — underscores what may be Musk’s larger goal in this trial. He appears to be trying not only to sway jurors in order to potentially remove Brockman and CEO Sam Altman from power, but also to confuse both men and damage OpenAI’s public image.
When Brockman took the stand on Monday, Musk’s lawyer, Steven Molo, quickly began questioning him about his salary at OpenAI. Brockman revealed that his stake in OpenAI is now worth over $20 billion, and possibly as much as $30 billion. Although Brockman initially promised to donate $100,000 to OpenAI during its creation, he stated that he ultimately never did so.
Since founding the company in 2015, Brockman has held a number of key roles at OpenAI. In the startup’s early days, it was located in his apartment in San Francisco’s Mission District. Today, he is deeply involved in refocusing OpenAI on several key products such as Codex. Last year, Brockman also donated millions to supercomputer PACs promoting artificial intelligence and President Trump, and previously stated that this increased political spending is tied to OpenAI’s founding mission to create artificial general intelligence that benefits all of humanity.
In court Monday, Molo tried to argue that Brockman and Altman essentially plundered the original OpenAI nonprofit, which Musk funded and helped create.
In its early days, OpenAI told investors and employees that its nonprofit mission took precedence over generating profit. Brockman testified that his financial interests to this day come second to the nonprofit mission OpenAI.
When OpenAI formed its for-profit arm in 2019, which received assets from the nonprofit, Brockman testified that he received a significant stake in the recent entity. At the beginning of the OpenAI story, Brockman mentioned that he wanted to become a billionaire, Inhe writes in his personal journal, “What will financially get me to $1 billion?”
On Monday, Molo pressed Brockman for several minutes about the extensive wealth he has amassed beyond his original goal.
“Why not give that $29 billion to the nonprofit OpenAI? Why didn’t you do that?” Molo asked. Brockman responded that he and others have poured “blood, sweat and tears” into building OpenAI in the years since Musk left the company.
The OpenAI Foundation has a stake in the company worth more than $150 billion, making it one of the richest nonprofits in history, Brockman said. That’s roughly five times Brockman’s ownership stake. In total, OpenAI employees own approximately 25 percent of the shares. The foundation has 27 percent. Brockman testified that the nonprofit OpenAI received less than $150 million from donors, suggesting that Musk had an inadvertent influence on the company’s success and that the real drivers were those who stayed on to create OpenAI.
Of course, Brockman’s stake in OpenAI could be worth well over $30 billion if the company successfully goes public in the next two years. Asked if OpenAI was considering a potential IPO, Brockman said yes.