OpenAI co-founder and president, Greg Brockman, revealed on Monday deeper financial links to CEO Sam Altman than previously known. He also disclosed his stake in the ChatGPT maker is worth almost $30 billion.
These details came out in court during questioning by a lawyer for Elon Musk. Musk, who also co-founded OpenAI, is suing the company. He claims it wrongly became a for-profit business, abandoned its charitable goals, and should return to being a nonprofit organization.
Musk’s legal team argued that Brockman’s independence might be compromised by financial incentives. They believe these incentives led him to support Altman, who pushed for OpenAI to become a for-profit company. Brockman also told the court that he holds stakes in two startups backed by Altman, as well as a percentage of Altman’s family fund.
The trial is now in its second week in a California courtroom. Its outcome could shape the future of OpenAI, which started a huge craze for generative artificial intelligence after launching its ChatGPT chatbot in late 2022. Since then, OpenAI has raised over $100 billion from investors. This money helps hire researchers, buy computing power, and expand the company ahead of a potential multi-trillion-dollar IPO. Musk is asking the court to remove Altman and Brockman from their leadership roles. He is also seeking $150 billion in damages.
Early in his testimony, Brockman agreed that his stake in OpenAI was worth nearly $30 billion, a figure that had not been known before. In 2017, Altman gave Brockman a stake in Altman’s family office, which was valued at $10 million at the time. In that same year, Brockman, Musk, and other OpenAI executives discussed changing OpenAI into a for-profit company. They believed this would help the organization pay for the very expensive computing power needed to train AI systems.
Brockman said he did not directly discuss his compensation with Musk. However, emails read in court showed that Altman mentioned the arrangement during a separate conversation with Jared Birchall, who manages Musk’s family office. Birchall then passed these details to Musk.
Birchall wrote in an email, “One thing worth mentioning now is that he compensated Greg on the side by giving him a percentage ownership of Sam’s personal family office.” He added that this deal could mean that “Greg is going to have a greater allegiance to Sam as a result of this arrangement.” Musk forwarded Birchall’s note to Brockman with two question marks.
