Greg Brockman's testimony in Musk v. Altman trial reveals journal entries showing past ambivalence about OpenAI's nonprofit structure and financial interests

Brockman, OpenAI's president, was cross-examined in Musk's lawsuit against OpenAI and Sam Altman. During testimony, he was confronted with journal entries from circa 2017 in which he wrote about the potential for converting the nonprofit to a for-profit entity and questioned whether it was right to 'steal the non-profit from him' without Musk's involvement.

Musk's attorney highlighted Brockman's financial conflicts of interest, including a 1 percent stake in Altman's family office, and business relationships with companies where Brockman has financial ties—Cerebras, CoreWeave, Stripe, and Helion Energy. Brockman also declined to directly answer why he had not donated the majority of his $30 billion stake in OpenAI's for-profit to the nonprofit arm when his journal stated '$1 billion' was sufficient for him.

The testimony portrays Brockman and Altman as the primary architects of OpenAI's founding, with Musk appearing as a more distant figure who became involved later. In Brockman's account, Musk seemed 'very consistent and fixated' on Google's Denis Hassabis, and Musk expressed concern about becoming too involved in day-to-day operations.