OpenAI co-founder and president Greg Brockman has disclosed in court that he holds a stake in the company worth nearly $30 billion, along with previously undisclosed financial ties to CEO Sam Altman, intensifying a high-stakes legal battle brought by Elon Musk over OpenAI’s transformation into a for-profit entity.
The revelations were made during testimony in a California courtroom where Musk is suing OpenAI, alleging that the company abandoned its original nonprofit mission to prioritize safe artificial intelligence development and instead shifted toward commercial interests. Musk is seeking to remove Altman and Brockman from leadership and is also demanding $150 billion in damages.
According to court disclosures, Brockman confirmed that his OpenAI stake alone is valued at close to $30 billion, a figure not previously made public. He also acknowledged financial links to Altman, including stakes in startups backed by the OpenAI chief executive and a share in Altman’s family investment fund, raising questions from Musk’s legal team about potential conflicts of interest and independence within OpenAI’s leadership.
The case has highlighted early internal discussions dating back to 2017, when OpenAI executives, including Musk and Brockman, debated restructuring the organization into a for-profit model to fund the massive computing resources required to train advanced AI systems. At the time, Altman reportedly provided Brockman with a $10 million interest in his personal family office arrangement, a detail that has become central to Musk’s argument that internal financial ties may have influenced decision-making.
Emails presented in court suggest that Musk was informed of the arrangement through his then–family office representative, who warned that Brockman’s financial connection to Altman could increase his loyalty to the OpenAI CEO. Brockman, when questioned, declined to characterize his relationship with Altman in those terms.
The testimony also revealed Brockman’s investments in other AI-related companies, including chipmaker Cerebras and fusion energy startup Helion Energy, both of which have business or investment links to Altman. OpenAI has previously signaled large-scale spending on Cerebras technology, further intertwining the financial relationships under scrutiny in court.
Musk, who co-founded OpenAI before leaving its board in 2018, argues that the organization misused his early financial support by shifting away from its nonprofit commitments. He claims OpenAI and its leadership misrepresented their intentions and are now pursuing profit-driven goals at the expense of their original mission. OpenAI has rejected these claims, arguing that Musk is motivated by competitive interests and frustration following his departure, pointing to his own AI ventures as part of the broader rivalry.
The trial, now in its second week, could have significant implications for OpenAI’s governance and future structure as the company continues to expand rapidly and positions itself for a potential trillion-dollar public offering.
