OpenAI Co-Founder Reveals $30 Billion Stake Under Courtroom Pressure
Greg Brockman, co-founder and president of OpenAI, disclosed on the witness stand Monday that his equity in the company is worth nearly $30 billion - a figure that had never before been made public. The revelation came during the second week of the federal lawsuit brought by Elon Musk against OpenAI and Microsoft in Oakland, California, before US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers. The trial, which began on April 28, centers on Musk's claim that OpenAI's shift toward a for-profit structure betrayed the nonprofit mission he helped found and fund.
A Financial Web That Raises Questions About Independence
Brockman's testimony exposed financial arrangements that Musk's legal team argued call his independence into question. In 2017, CEO Sam Altman gave Brockman a stake in Altman's personal family office, then valued at $10 million. The arrangement surfaced in court through emails involving Jared Birchall, Musk's head of family office, who wrote to Musk at the time: "He compensated Greg on the side by giving him a percentage ownership of Sam's personal family office […] Greg is going to have a greater allegiance to Sam as a result of this arrangement." Musk forwarded the email to Brockman with two question marks. When asked directly whether he was loyal to Altman, Brockman responded, "I don't know I would say it quite like that."
The nature of the arrangement matters beyond its dollar value. In high-stakes corporate governance disputes, financial entanglement between executives can determine whether a board member or senior officer can be considered truly independent when approving major structural decisions - such as converting a nonprofit into a for-profit entity. Musk's lawsuit alleges that OpenAI's leadership, including Brockman, pursued that transformation in ways that wrongfully benefited insiders at the expense of the company's founding humanitarian mission.
Conflicts of Interest: Cerebras, Helion, and Undisclosed Stakes
Brockman also acknowledged owning shares in Cerebras, an AI chip startup, during periods when OpenAI was actively considering spending significant sums to purchase Cerebras chips. He had also internally advocated for OpenAI to acquire or merge with the company. His explanation - that he disclosed the investment to colleagues but not to Musk because "Elon is sometimes hard to get a hold of" - did little to resolve the legal and ethical questions raised by his lawyers. Separately, Brockman confirmed a stake in Helion Energy, a nuclear fusion startup in which Altman has invested hundreds of millions of dollars. Altman stepped down from Helion's board in March 2026 as the two companies were exploring a working relationship.
Taken together, the disclosed holdings sketch a portrait of interlocking financial interests among OpenAI's senior leadership that critics argue were never fully transparent to all stakeholders - including, crucially, one of the organization's earliest and largest donors.
What the Testimony Revealed About OpenAI's Internal History
Beyond the financial disclosures, Brockman's testimony offered rare insight into the early dynamics that shaped OpenAI. He testified that at a 2015 founding dinner, Musk asked attendees whether they believed Google DeepMind's CEO Demis Hassabis was "evil" - a detail that adds texture to the competitive anxiety about AI concentration at Google that partly motivated OpenAI's creation. Brockman also testified that Musk eventually left OpenAI because he believed it had a "0% chance" of reaching artificial general intelligence first, and wanted to pursue AGI development at Tesla - though he felt it would need to be done in secret because "the shareholders wouldn't like it."
Journal entries from 2017, entered into evidence Monday, showed Brockman himself believed that converting OpenAI to a for-profit structure without Musk's knowledge would be "pretty morally bankrupt." On the stand, he reframed the phrase: he said he meant it would be personally difficult to justify, but that the transition would still serve the company's mission. That reframing is likely to be scrutinized closely, given that the core question in the trial is whether OpenAI's leadership acted in good faith toward both its mission and its early supporters.
Brockman also confirmed that OpenAI considers itself approximately "80% of the way" to AGI, which he defines as machines "at least as capable as a human at specific tasks." The company closed a $122 billion funding round in March 2026 at an $825 billion valuation and is exploring an initial public offering. When asked whether his $30 billion stake would grow substantially after a public listing, Brockman replied, "I'm not sure how those two are connected."
A Settlement That Collapsed - and What Comes Next
A court filing submitted the day before Brockman's testimony revealed that Musk had approached Brockman two days before the trial began to explore a settlement. Brockman proposed that both sides drop their claims. According to the filing, Musk responded: "By the end of this week, you and Sam will be the most hated men in America. If you insist, so it will be." The settlement effort ended there. The exchange is significant not only as a procedural detail but as an indicator of how personally and reputationally charged this litigation has become for all parties involved.
Musk is seeking $150 billion in damages from OpenAI and Microsoft, along with changes to OpenAI's leadership structure. The trial is expected to continue for several more weeks, with testimony anticipated from Altman, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, and former OpenAI figures including Ilya Sutskever and Mira Murati. Each witness carries the potential to reshape or reinforce the central narrative: whether OpenAI's transformation from nonprofit to commercial powerhouse was a principled adaptation to technological reality, or a quiet betrayal of the terms under which it was built.
