Greg Brockman, OpenAI’s president and the top lieutenant to CEO Sam Altman, told a California court on Monday that his stake in the artificial intelligence company is worth nearly $30 billion. Brockman made the disclosure during testimony in Oakland, as the civil case focuses on OpenAI’s 2015 founding as a nonprofit startup and its later evolution into a profit-oriented venture.
Brockman told the court that his personal stake would place him among the world’s richest people, with wealth described as comparable to Melinda French Gates, according to the Associated Press report. He also testified that he did not personally invest any money in OpenAI.
The trial proceedings come in the civil lawsuit that accuses Altman and Brockman of “double-crossing” Elon Musk by straying from the founding mission described in the complaint. The lawsuit alleges that the defendants shifted into a moneymaking mode behind Musk’s back after the company’s early nonprofit structure.
In the testimony described by AP, Brockman testified that OpenAI’s nonprofit origins were driven by Musk’s funding before the company “evolved into a capitalistic venture now valued at $852 billion.” Brockman’s disclosure about his stake was offered to the court in the context of those claims about how the company changed over time.
The courtroom exchange also included an evidentiary dispute involving Musk. Late Sunday, OpenAI lawyers sought to admit as evidence a text message Musk sent to Brockman two days before the trial began, according to a court filing described in AP’s account.
According to that filing, Musk messaged Brockman to “gauge interest in settlement,” and Brockman replied that both sides should drop their respective claims. The filing said Musk then responded that “By the end of this week, you and Sam will be the most hated men in America. If you insist, so it will.”
Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, who is overseeing the trial, did not admit the text exchange as evidence, the report said.