OpenAI President Greg Brockman grilled over embarrassing diary entries while taking charitable donations from Elon Musk: ‘What will take me to $1B?’
OpenAI President Greg Brockman faced intense questioning in a California federal court over decade-old diary entries where he pondered how to become a billionaire, despite OpenAI's nonprofit status at the time. Elon Musk's legal team used the entries to challenge Brockman's claim that decisions were mission-driven, not profit-motivated. The ongoing lawsuit alleges OpenAI strayed from its charitable mission, with Musk seeking billions in damages and leadership changes.
- ▪Greg Brockman wrote in a 2017 journal about wanting to know 'what will take me to $1B' while OpenAI was a nonprofit receiving donations from Elon Musk.
- ▪Brockman expressed concerns in the same diary about the ethics of turning OpenAI into a for-profit, calling it 'morally bankrupt' to betray Musk.
- ▪Elon Musk is suing OpenAI and Microsoft for $180 billion, alleging the organization abandoned its nonprofit mission.
- ▪Musk's lawyer accused Brockman of prioritizing personal wealth over OpenAI’s mission, citing the diary entries as evidence.
- ▪Brockman testified that his stake in OpenAI is now worth nearly $30 billion, though he claimed financial gain was secondary to the organization's goals.
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Business OpenAI President Greg Brockman grilled over embarrassing diary entries while taking charitable donations from Elon Musk: ‘What will take me to $1B?’ By Marc Vartabedian Published May 4, 2026, 6:40 p.m. ET OAKLAND, Calif. — OpenAI’s president Greg Brockman got grilled by Elon Musk’s lawyer on Monday over embarrassing diary entries from nearly a decade ago in which he fantasized about becoming a billionaire — even as the then-nonprofit charity got millions in donations from Musk. “Financially what will take me to $1B?” Brockman wrote in the digital journal in 2017, referring to the idea of converting OpenAI to a for-profit entity. “We’ve been thinking that maybe we should just flip to a for profit,” Brockman allegedly wrote.
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