Courtroom Moments: Brockman on OpenAI’s Shift

The trial in Oakland has focused on whether OpenAI's founders stayed true to the lab's nonprofit origins or shifted to a commercial model. Greg Brockman, OpenAI’s president, testified that discussions in 2017 led to proposals to change the company's structure because a charity could not easily raise the capital needed for advanced AI. Had those proposals moved forward unchanged, control and funding arrangements would likely have been very different.

Brockman described a 2017 moment when Elon Musk sought a 62.5% majority stake and pressed for broader control so he could marshal very large investments, including an effort to raise roughly $80 billion for plans linked to Mars. Musk had provided about $38 million in early funding, but notes and emails from the period showed disagreement over the terms that would govern a new for-profit arrangement. The court is examining those documents to see who understood what was promised.

In his testimony Brockman also disclosed that his equity stake in the company is now worth nearly $30 billion, and he said OpenAI expects to spend about $50 billion on computing in 2026. "He said he needed $80 billion to create a city", Brockman said. His journal entries and internal messages, which were shown in court, have been used to explain the founders' motives and their private disputes.

Jurors must weigh the founders' actions against the written agreements and emails from the time, and the legal case will hinge on whether promises made to early backers were binding. In the days before the trial, Musk reached out about a settlement and later sent pointed text messages that opposing lawyers have cited. The outcome could clarify how much latitude nonprofit start-ups have when they pursue large commercial deals.