OpenAI’s CEO confirms for the first time in court that it is exploring an IPO: personal holdings of nearly $30 billion

According to Beating Monitoring, during his court testimony on Monday, OpenAI president Greg Brockman publicly confirmed for the first time that the company is exploring an initial public offering (IPO). As the Elon Musk vs. OpenAI case enters its second week, Brockman’s appearance not only reinforces earlier rumors about a planned listing, but also reveals that he personally holds shares in OpenAI worth nearly $30 billion. With OpenAI’s current private valuation at about $8500 billion, a successful IPO could become one of the largest IPOs in history.

During questioning in court, Musk’s attorney tried to show that OpenAI executives lacked genuine charitable intent at the outset. The attorney pointed out in court that in 2014, Brockman claimed to people including Marissa Mayer, the former CEO of Yahoo, that he had personally donated $100,000 to the nonprofit project in order to attract external funding. Brockman admitted that in the end he didn’t contribute a single dollar and shifted the responsibility to Altman: “I asked Sam when I should hand over the money, and he said he would notify me.” In addition, Brockman also confirmed that besides holding a massive stake in OpenAI, he has another $471 million in Stripe shares.

Also appearing that day was Stuart Russell, an AI expert at the University of California, Berkeley, who was hired as an expert witness by Musk’s side. He said he received an hourly rate of up to $5000, paid by the Musk family office, totaling about $235,000. Faced with intensive questioning from Musk’s lawyer about his personal motives, Brockman insisted that OpenAI still occupies the “moral high ground,” emphasizing that its mission to benefit humanity as its primary fiduciary responsibility has not been violated, and stating that today’s for-profit entity was “built with blood, sweat, and tears.”