The For Profit Gambit That Almost Was
Court documents from the ongoing Musk versus OpenAI legal saga have dredged up a revealing piece of history. Back in August 2017, Sam Altman proposed an equal equity split among Altman, Elon Musk, Greg Brockman, and Ilya Sutskever. This was the first formal pitch to turn OpenAI into a for profit entity, a move that would have divided the company equally among its key founders. The proposal underscores just how early the profit motive crept into the organization’s DNA, long before the public narrative of pure nonprofit altruism took hold.
Musk’s Power Play and the Broken Promise
Elon Musk flatly rejected the plan, but not for idealistic reasons. According to Brockman’s testimony, Musk dismissed the proposal with a threatening ultimatum: ‘You guys are great but I could start another AI company tomorrow. One tweet is all it takes.’ This wasn’t a principled stand against commercialization. It was a flex of raw power, a reminder that Musk saw himself as indispensable. The equal split idea died, but the for profit seed had been planted. The tension between those who wanted shared governance and those who wanted control has haunted OpenAI ever since, and this court battle is the inevitable harvest.
Source: Theverge
