OpenAI co-founder and President Greg Brockman has disclosed deeper financial ties to CEO Sam Altman than previously known, along with a personal stake in the company valued at nearly $30 billion.
This comes amid a high stakes trial following a lawsuit filed by billionaire Elon Musk, against OpenAI. The lawsuit alleges that the company deviated from its original mission as a nonprofit organization dedicated to developing artificial intelligence for the benefit of humanity.
READ: Elon Musk goes on rant against Sam Altman amid OpenAI lawsuit (April 28, 2026)
Musk’s team said that Brockman’s independence was potentially compromised by financial incentives that led him to support Altman, who was behind OpenAI’s shift to a for-profit structure. Brockman also disclosed in court that he holds stakes in two startups backed by Altman as well as a percentage of Altman’s family fund.
Musk is seeking to remove Altman and Brockman from leadership, as well as $150 billion in damages.
Early in his testimony, Brockman agreed that his stake in OpenAI was worth close to $30 billion, a figure not previously known.
In 2017, Altman gave Brockman a stake in Altman’s family office that was worth $10 million at the time. That same year, Brockman, Musk and other OpenAI executives discussed restructuring OpenAI as a for-profit so the organization could pay for the pricey computing power required for AI training.
Brockman said he did not discuss his compensation directly with Musk. According to emails read out in court, Altman mentioned the arrangement during a separate conversation with Jared Birchall, Musk’s head of family office, who relayed the details to Musk.
“One thing worth mentioning now is that he compensated Greg on the side by giving him a percentage ownership of Sam’s personal family office,” Birchall wrote in the email, adding that the deal could mean “Greg is going to have a greater allegiance to Sam as a result of this arrangement.”
Brockman said “I don’t know I would say it quite like that,” when asked if he was loyal to Altman.
On Monday, Brockman disclosed his stakes in the startups Cerebras and Helion Energy, both companies linked to OpenAI and Altman. Earlier this year, OpenAI signed a deal to purchase up to 750 megawatts of computing power over three years from chipmaker Cerebras. The deal is worth more than $10 billion over the life of the contract, according to reports.
Helion Energy is a fusion startup in which Altman had previously invested. In March, Altman stepped down from Helion’s board because the two companies were looking to work together.
READ: Elon Musk and Sam Altman to head to court over OpenAI dispute (April 27, 2026)
Musk, who is the world’s richest person, and the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, alleges OpenAI, Altman and Brockman secured his $38 million in donations and personal help by promising to build a nonprofit that would prioritize safe development of AI, before pivoting to create a for-profit entity to enrich themselves. His charges include breach of charitable trust and unjust enrichment.
OpenAI, on the other hand, says that Musk is driven by a compulsion to control AI giant and is bitter about the company’s success after he left the board in 2018. The pioneering firm also noted Musk did not prioritize safety issues while with the company, and that he is trying to bolster his own AI company, SpaceX’s unit xAI, which lags behind OpenAI in user adoption.