Brockman halts $25M to Leading the Future after staff pushback

The internal Slack messages, shared with Semafor, describe a company wrestling with the political fallout of a super PAC that OpenAI sought to portray as fully independent. Staff first pressed the issue in February, and in May employees confronted global affairs chief Chris Lehane about OpenAI's relationship with Leading the Future. Kwon's June 1 message, intended to calm the thread, briefly worked, but employees then questioned the PAC's independence and worried about its effect on OpenAI's brand and on keeping senior researchers.

The source said Brockman had his own qualms that began with the PAC targeting New York Assemblymember Alex Bores, an AI safety advocate running for Congress in New York, and that he had expected the PAC to focus on supporting allied candidates. The source added that Brockman gave pointed feedback to LTF and had not heard of the PAC attacking candidates since Bores. LTF, which launched in August 2025, had more than $100 million in commitments, and its leadership included global affairs chief Chris Lehane, who had helped set it up following a model he pioneered for the crypto industry.

The dispute flared again on June 11, when an employee posted a Transformer article about Build American AI (BAAI), a sister group that does not disclose its donors. Brockman then weighed in, denying that OpenAI backed BAAI and abandoning his additional $25 million donation. The outcome hinges on whether LTF moderates its tactics and whether OpenAI employees accept that the public lines drawn are enough.