Brockman Takes Stand in Musk v. Altman Trial, Reveals $30B Stake
SAN FRANCISCO — OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman testified this week in a federal lawsuit brought by Elon Musk against Sam Altman and OpenAI, disclosing a stake in the company worth nearly $30 billion, according to Bloomberg.
Brockman co-founded OpenAI alongside Altman and Musk in 2015. His appearance on the stand came after the disclosure of a text message from Musk related to a settlement offer in the case.
Business Insider highlighted five notable moments from Brockman’s time on the stand, offering a window into the dispute over OpenAI’s conversion from a nonprofit research lab to a for-profit entity — the central issue in Musk’s legal challenge.
The trial, being heard in a California federal court, pits two prominent figures in American technology against each other. Musk, who was an early backer and board member of OpenAI, has argued that Altman and the company’s leadership betrayed the organization’s founding mission by pursuing a for-profit structure that prioritizes commercial interests over the public good.
OpenAI has defended the conversion as necessary to secure the capital required to compete in the AI industry, where training frontier models demands billions of dollars in computing resources.
Brockman’s testimony drew attention given his role as a co-founder who has had a complicated relationship with the company in recent years. His disclosed stake of nearly $30 billion illustrates the financial interests at play in the restructuring — a point Musk’s legal team has sought to emphasize throughout the proceedings.
The disclosure of a Musk settlement-related text message was also addressed during proceedings. The specifics of the text and its implications for the case were not fully detailed in initial reports.
The outcome of the lawsuit could affect OpenAI’s corporate structure and, more broadly, how AI organizations balance mission-driven research with commercial pressures in an industry now valued in the hundreds of billions of dollars.
The trial continues in federal court in California.
