Greg Brockman is the President and a co-founder of OpenAI, which he co-founded in 2015 after serving as chief technology officer of Stripe. In 2026 he and his wife Anna Brockman became among the largest individual funders of pro-AI political activity, while Brockman also consolidated control over OpenAI's product strategy and testified in the Musk v. Altman trial.
Role at OpenAI
Brockman co-founded OpenAI in 2015 and serves as its President. He left and rejoined the company during the November 2023 board turmoil, returning as President and remaining involved in product and engineering.
OpenAI announced internally on May 15, 2026 that Brockman would permanently lead product strategy across ChatGPT, Codex, and the developer-facing API, folded into a single core product team. The role had been interim while CEO of AGI deployment Fidji Simo was on medical leave. Brockman described the consolidation as "executing with maximum focus toward the agentic future, to win across both consumer and enterprise." His direct reports under the structure were Thibault Sottiaux (Codex head, moving to core product and platform and a forthcoming desktop "super app" combining Codex, ChatGPT, and the Atlas browser); Nick Turley (longtime ChatGPT head, with the product reporting more than 900 million weekly active users, moving to enterprise products); and Ashley Alexander (former Instagram VP, previously on OpenAI health work, moving to consumer). (Source: wired.com; techcrunch.com) See OpenAI.
Political and policy activity
Alongside Anna Brockman, Greg Brockman became one of the largest individual funders of pro-AI political activity. The Information described the couple in a January 23, 2026 article, "How Greg and Anna Brockman Became MAGA Megadonors." The Brockmans, together with a16z, are among the principal backers of Leading the Future (super PAC), a pro-AI political vehicle reported at more than $100 million and targeting the 2026 midterms. TechCrunch reported the funding in a January 30, 2026 article, "OpenAI's Brockman and a16z funnel cash to pro-AI super PAC." Coverage characterized the activity as bridging Silicon Valley frontier-AI principals with MAGA political coalitions, describing direct super PAC funding by frontier-lab principals as a form of direct electoral influence in AI policy.
Policy positions
In an interview published July 25, 2026, Brockman endorsed Demis Hassabis's proposal for a FINRA-like self-regulatory body for AI, saying "I think Demis's idea is quite good… A vacuum slows everyone down." He declined to back restrictions on Chinese open-source models on the grounds that "having startups that can flourish is absolutely critical," and said OpenAI has drawn "a very clear line in the sand" against optimizing chain-of-thought for appearance in order to preserve monitorability (Source: fortune.com). See AI Pre-Release Vetting, Open-Weight Frontier Models, Reasoning Models and Chain-of-Thought, Monitorability Tax.
Musk v. Altman testimony
Brockman testified in Oakland on May 4–5, 2026 in Musk v. Altman. He disclosed an OpenAI stake worth roughly $30 billion (Bloomberg, May 4) and was cross-examined on why he had not donated $29 billion to OpenAI's nonprofit arm. He also disclosed financial ties to Sam Altman: a stake in Altman's family office, gifted in 2017 and then worth $10 million, plus shares in the Altman-backed companies Cerebras and Helion Energy. Musk family-office head Jared Birchall wrote in an in-court email that the arrangement meant "Greg is going to have a greater allegiance to Sam." (Source: reuters.com)
In testimony Brockman said OpenAI was to spend $50 billion on compute in 2026, up from $30 million in 2017. (Source: bloomberg.com) He said Musk "did not — and I believe does not — know AI" during conversion talks. He recounted Musk demanding a majority stake and "$80 billion" because Musk "needed it to start a city on Mars," and that when Brockman pushed back Musk said he could start another AI company tomorrow with "one Tweet." Brockman also disclosed that he learned from public reporting that OpenAI board member Shivon Zilis's twins were fathered by Musk, after she had told him the relationship was "platonic." (Source: platformer.news)
OpenAI's lawyers filed on May 3, 2026 that Musk had messaged Brockman two days before trial proposing settlement, then warned that "by the end of this week, you and Sam will be the most hated men in America" when Brockman declined. Judge Gonzalez Rogers excluded the message from evidence on May 4, but the docket filing made it public. (Source: cnbc.com)
A unanimous nine-juror advisory verdict at N.D. Cal. (Oakland) on May 18, 2026 dismissed all claims against Brockman, Altman, OpenAI, and Microsoft on statute-of-limitations grounds in less than two hours. Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers adopted the verdict, and Musk's lawyer reserved the right to appeal. The $30 billion stake disclosure and the financial-ties-to-Altman record survive in the public record but have no operative legal effect. (Source: reuters.com) See Musk v. Altman (and OpenAI / Microsoft / Brockman).
Relationships
- co-founded: OpenAI
- funds: Leading the Future (super PAC)
- related: Sam Altman (OpenAI co-founder), Anna Brockman, American Innovators Network (AIN), planned AI Industry Lobbying — The 2025-2026 Political Offensive, The OpenAI Files.