OpenAI cofounder's journal seemingly outlines plot with Altman to oust Musk to establish a for-profit biz — ‘This is the only chance we have to get out from Elon,’ Brockman wrote

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Brockman's personal notes reveal much about his views on Musk and OpenAI.

Sam Altman and Elon Musk at a Vanity Fair event back in the day
(Image credit: Getty Images)

Court files from Elon Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI revealed that Greg Brockman, one of its co-founders, wanted to get the company out from the Tesla founder since 2017. According to a document from the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, posted on X, case discovery revealed that Brockman didn’t just want to remove Musk from OpenAI, but also tried to convert it into a for-profit company without him. In a publicly-posted rebuttal of some aspects of the journal, OpenAI has acknowledged that the journal is real. However, the firm's comments don't address the following excerpts.

“This is the only chance we have to get out from Elon. Is he the ‘glorious leader’ that I would pick? We truly have a chance to make this happen. Financially, what would take me to $1B?” Brockman wrote in his personal files revealed during the lawsuit. “Accepting Elon’s terms nukes two things: our ability to choose (though maybe we could overrule him) and the economics.”

Expand the above tweet to see the court documents. The supposed revelation appears in documents related to Musk’s lawsuit seeking to stop OpenAI’s move to become a for-profit company. Elon Musk first sued OpenAI in early 2024 in a California state court, alleging that its plan to become a for-profit entity breaches its founding agreement. However, he dropped the case one day before hearings were supposed to start, only to refile the case a few months later — but this time at a federal court.

Relations between the two camps have been testy ever since the OpenAI founders wanted to make the firm for-profit. This has gotten to the point that when Altman called out Tesla for not being contactable via its [email protected] email address on X, Musk replied with, “You stole a non-profit.” Naturally, we will have to wait for court proceedings and the jury’s decision to determine if this is true.

According to the court files, “Brockman wrote after the meeting [with Musk to reaffirm OpenAI’s commitment to the non-profit structure] that the ‘conclusion is we truly want the b-corp. Honestly, we also want to get back to work, but it’s super clear how we get there.’ He also continued, ‘cannot say that we are committed to the non-profit, don’t want to say that we’re committed, if, three months later, we’re doing B-Corp, then it was a lie.” The document also revealed that Brockman did not like the situation and the “the true answer is that we want [Musk] out.”

With the way things are shaping up, this case seems set to be an epic court fight between two AI tech bros, with billions of dollars at stake. Elon Musk is reportedly seeking damages ranging from $79 billion to $134 billion, as well as an unspecified punitive penalty.

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Jowi Morales
Jowi Morales
Contributing Writer
19 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Pierce2623
    Wait…so Elon’s lawsuit saying they purposely pushed him out to go for-profit isn’t complete BS? I honestly didn’t see that coming. I just figured he had lost interest and then got jealous when OpenAI got big.
    Reply
  • palladin9479
    Pierce2623 said:
    Wait…so Elon’s lawsuit saying they purposely pushed him out to go for-profit isn’t complete BS? I honestly didn’t see that coming. I just figured he had lost interest and then got jealous when OpenAI got big.

    That journal is pretty damping for showing OpenAI was being deceptive towards it's investors. You can be a lot of things but that one is a clear federal crime. Smart to move it out of California State courts and to Federal courts, avoids most of the influence by California government.
    Reply
  • blppt
    Pierce2623 said:
    Wait…so Elon’s lawsuit saying they purposely pushed him out to go for-profit isn’t complete BS? I honestly didn’t see that coming. I just figured he had lost interest and then got jealous when OpenAI got big.
    I honestly don't understand how a man who just signed a monstrous contract for Grok would have a problem with OpenAI going for profit.
    Reply
  • Zaranthos
    blppt said:
    I honestly don't understand how a man who just signed a monstrous contract for Grok would have a problem with OpenAI going for profit.

    Probably more than one reason. Betrayal probably topping the list. Elon isn't motivated purely by money, he has plenty of that, he wants to colonize Mars, among other things. It's quite possible he lays awake at night worrying about perceived existential threats to humanity and how he might be one of the few people in a position to fix them. He clearly isn't motivated solely by profit or he wouldn't have done many of the things he's done.
    Reply
  • palladin9479
    Zaranthos said:
    Probably more than one reason. Betrayal probably topping the list. Elon isn't motivated purely by money, he has plenty of that, he wants to colonize Mars, among other things. It's quite possible he lays awake at night worrying about perceived existential threats to humanity and how he might be one of the few people in a position to fix them. He clearly isn't motivated solely by profit or he wouldn't have done many of the things he's done.

    Most people do not understand that there are two companies named "OpenAI".

    First is the OpenAI Foundation, this is a non-profit organization that was founded by Elon and several other wealthy donors. As a nonprofit they have a charter that spells out their mission and this is very important because deviating from this charter revokes their nonprofit status making them subject to taxes and all sorts of IRS and SEC scrutiny. This was the original organization that designed such that "AI" software and technology would be open for the entire world, it was the same concept as the Linux Foundation and Apache Software Foundation. The donated funds from the founders would go towards research and creation of the technology that everyone can use.

    Sam Altman and some other founders didn't like being forced into this non-profit model by the original investors they were inviting to participate (Elon et all). Non-profits do not offer stock for the founders to sell during an IPO, nonprofits exist to provide for a public service, not to make investors wealthy. After manipulating the board to his liking, Sam was able to get them to vote to create a for-profit subsidiary OpenAI LLC, now called OpenAI Group. This second organization is for-profit and able to accept investment from outside entities, including Sam Altman himself. OpenAI Foundation only owns 26% of OpenAI Group, Microsoft owns 27% and the rest is by Sam and other OpenAI executives. They then transferred the technology that was developed by OpenAI Foundation to OpenAI Group and put it behind a license instead of being opensource like originally intended.

    That second part is what Elon is sueing about, claiming that those founders that sought his donations (this is a nonprofit remember, it's not an investment) were doing so using deception with the intent of betraying the conditions of those donations. The claim is that Sam and friends intended all along to use those non-profit donations to fund a for-profit tech startup by laundering them through a secondary company. Proving this in court requires proving intent, which is notoriously hard to prove, except they now have a diary where one of the founders express's said intent in their own words.

    An analogy people might understand is if Linux Torvalds created a for-profit subsidiary called "Linux Group" under the non-profit Linux Foundation. Then moved the Linux kernel technology to that for-profit, changed it's license and started charging everyone royalties to use it. Since The Linux Foundation is funded by donations, trying to reorganize it such that its a for-profit would really piss people off, and likely cause regulators to come crashing down on them.
    Reply
  • bit_user
    Zaranthos said:
    It's quite possible he lays awake at night worrying about perceived existential threats to humanity and how he might be one of the few people in a position to fix them.
    LOL, no. Although he does have a god complex, of sorts.
    Reply
  • bit_user
    palladin9479 said:
    this is very important because deviating from this charter revokes their nonprofit status making them subject to taxes and all sorts of IRS and SEC scrutiny.
    Does SEC ever enter the picture for private companies? I thought their remit was only to regulate publicly-traded companies.
    Reply
  • blppt
    bit_user said:
    LOL, no. Although he does have a god complex, of sorts.
    Personally, I think its more likely his self-prescription dosing of Ketamine has probably fried his brain.
    Reply
  • ravewulf
    I don't blame him for wanting to be rid of Elon, but then there's the rest of it...
    Reply
  • usertests
    ClosedAI:rofl:
    Go China
    Reply