Two days before of Musk’s lawsuit against Altman started, Elon Musk asked OpenAI co-founder and president Greg Brockman about reaching a solution. When Brockman suggested that both sides drop their claims, Musk responded, “By the end of this week, you and Sam (Altman) will be the most hated men in America. If you insist, so be it.”
A message—which OpenAI’s lawyers made public on Sunday, and which Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers later refused to let the jury hear about—underscores what may be Musk’s ultimate goal in this case. He seems to be trying not only to win over the judges to remove Brockman and CEO Sam Altman from power, but also to stir up dirt on the two men and. damaging the public image of OpenAI.
When Brockman took the stand on Monday, Musk’s attorney Steven Molo quickly began questioning him about his compensation at OpenAI. Brockman revealed that his equity stake in OpenAI is currently worth more than $20 billion, and possibly up to $30 billion. While Brockman initially pledged $100,000 to OpenAI when it was founded, he said he ultimately never followed through.
Brockman has held several key roles at OpenAI since he founded the company in 2015. In the startup’s early days, it operated out of his home in San Francisco’s Mission District. Today, he is very involved with refocusing OpenAI on a few key productssuch as the Codex. In the past year, Brockman too given millions for super PACs promoting AI and President Trump, and has said before This increase in political use is related to OpenAI’s founding mission to create artificial general intelligence that benefits all mankind.
In court Monday, Molo tried to make the case that Brockman and Altman had looted the nonprofit OpenAI, which Musk funded and helped create.
In its early days, OpenAI told investors and employees that its non-profit mission took precedence over generating profit. Brockman testified that his financial interests are still, to this day, secondary to the mission of the non-profit OpenAI.
When OpenAI formed its own for-profit organization in 2019, which received assets from a nonprofit organization, Brockman confirmed that he was given a large stake in the new organization. Early in OpenAI’s history, Brockman had referred to wanting to become a billionaire, wwriting in his personal diary, “What will take me financially to $1B?”
On Monday, Molo pressed Brockman for several minutes about how much wealth he had amassed beyond his initial goal.
“Why don’t you donate that $29 billion to the nonprofit OpenAI? Why didn’t you?” Molo asked. Brockman responded that he and others had poured “blood, sweat, and tears” into building OpenAI in the years since Musk left the company.
The OpenAI Foundation holds a stake of more than $150 billion in the company, making it one of the richest nonprofits in history, Brockman said. That’s about five times Brockman’s ownership interest. In total, OpenAI employees own about 25 percent of the stock. The foundation owns 27 percent. Brockman testified that the nonprofit OpenAI received less than $150 million from donors, implying that Musk was responsible for the company’s success and that the real drivers were those who stuck around to build OpenAI.
Of course, Brockman’s stake in OpenAI could be worth more than $30 billion if the company goes public in the next two years. When asked if OpenAI was exploring a potential IPO, Brockman said he believed so.
