Tesla CEO Elon Musk pressured OpenAI co-founder and President Greg Brockman in court to return his $30 billion (about 44 trillion won) stake to a non-profit foundation. The offensive came in the second week of the lawsuit against OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.
According to Bloomberg on Tuesday, Musk's attorney questioned Brockman, who appeared as a witness at the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in Oakland, asking, "Why didn't you donate that money to the non-profit foundation?" The attorney even produced a 2017 diary entry in which Brockman had written, "How can I make $1 billion (about 1.5 trillion won)?" — raising suspicions of personal profit-seeking.
Brockman admitted to holding the $30 billion stake, that he had made no direct investment in OpenAI, and that he had failed to fulfill a $100,000 (150 million won) donation pledge. However, he countered that the company's value was built through "blood, sweat and tears" after Musk's departure.
Allegations of a "bribery-like transaction" also surfaced. Altman had transferred approximately $10 million (about 15 billion won) worth of stake in his family office to Brockman. Jared Birchall, Musk's wealth manager, sent an email to Musk at the time saying, "This transaction will make Brockman more loyal to Altman." Musk's side argues that executive independence was compromised.
A conflict-of-interest controversy also emerged over the Cerebras investment. OpenAI signed a $10 billion (about 15 trillion won) computing power purchase agreement with Cerebras to reduce its dependence on Nvidia chips. The issue is that Altman and Brockman were early investors in Cerebras. The allegation is one of breach of trust, claiming executives used company funds to boost the value of startups they had invested in.
It was also revealed that Musk sent a text message to Brockman just before the trial, sounding him out on a settlement. When Brockman replied, "Let's both drop the lawsuit," Musk responded, "By the end of this week, you and Altman will be the most hated people in America."
Meanwhile, Musk has agreed to settle for $1.5 million (about 2.2 billion won) a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over his belated disclosure of share purchases during his Twitter (now X) acquisition.
