G胖 is very low-key! The founder of Steam once donated 20 million dollars to OpenAI and also introduced Hideo Kojima to meet Elon Musk.

Elon Musk and OpenAI lawsuit documents unexpectedly leaked, revealing that Steam founder once quietly sponsored OpenAI with over $20 million and served as an informal advisor. The documents also disclosed that he once facilitated a meeting between Musk and renowned game developer Hideo Kojima.

Steam Founder Previously Sponsored OpenAI

The lawsuit between Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is in full swing, and court documents used as evidence unexpectedly revealed that Steam founder Gabe Newell (nickname G胖) had quietly donated $20 million to OpenAI.

In undisputed facts covering court documents from 2016 to 2020, it was disclosed that Newell donated $20,088,279 in 2018, making him the second-largest donor over four years, after Musk.

Related emails also discussed the early philosophy of OpenAI, such as their initial goal to operate as a non-profit organization to prevent any one entity from gaining too much power over AI.

At that time, internal discussions within OpenAI debated whether the organization should remain independent or join a large corporation to secure more research funding.

G胖 Donated Over $8B and Served as an Informal Advisor

Court documents also show that Gabe Newell served on OpenAI’s informal advisory committee, allowing him to provide guidance to Altman and co-founder Greg Brockman without holding an official board seat.

At that time, OpenAI was testing its system with the game Dota 2. Due to the machine learning agents performing beyond expectations, the team began to worry that AI reaching human-level intelligence might happen sooner than anticipated.

Newell’s interest in AI technology is also linked to “brain-machine interfaces,” which are direct connection pathways established between organic brains and external devices, enabling thought-controlled machines or bidirectional information exchange between brains and computers.

An email from 2018 shows that Newell told Musk he viewed brain neural modulation as a huge consumer market and asked which team member from Neuralink he should talk to, with Musk sharing progress on implanting electrodes into animal brains.

Recently, Newell invested in a brain-machine interface company called Merge Labs, which also listed OpenAI as a partner, continuing this long-term interest.

• **Further reading: Helping 12 paralyzed people play games with their minds! Musk: Neuralink brain-machine interface to mass produce in 2026

Steam Founder Facilitated Kojima’s Meeting with Musk

Also in 2018, Newell asked Musk if it was possible for the renowned game developer Hideo Kojima to visit SpaceX.

Newell said that Kojima, during discussions about his new game Death Stranding (released in 2019) at Valve’s headquarters—the parent company of Steam—mentioned his focus on the future of AI and expressed a strong desire to go to space. He then proposed introducing him to Musk.

Two days later, Musk replied that he was happy to meet Kojima and welcomed him to visit SpaceX’s rocket factory. Kojima has publicly expressed his love for space in the past, but it is currently unconfirmed whether he actually completed the visit afterward.

Image source: Musk court documents, Steam founder facilitating Kojima’s meeting with Musk

Emails Also Mention Neuralink Confidential Progress

In the same email inviting Kojima, Musk further discussed highly confidential progress in the neural modulation field. He mentioned a procedure involving implanting about 6,000 electrodes into a monkey’s brain, describing it as something out of the sci-fi novel Neuromancer. This also sparked curiosity about whether Kojima, if he visited SpaceX, was allowed to see the laboratory experiments with monkeys.

At the end of the email, Musk detailed his level of involvement with OpenAI at that time. It is these early operational details of OpenAI discussed in the email that now serve as evidence in the lawsuit, exposing the interactions between Newell, Kojima, and Musk.

Further reading:
Steam removes adult games! Payment provider censorship becomes a form of literary inquisition? An overview of the gaming industry’s payment storm