Elon Musk asked OpenAI’s Greg Brockman to settle days before his civil trial was due to start, and when the OpenAI president said no, Musk shot back with a warning, a new document says.
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“On or about April 25, 2026, two days before trial began, Mr. Musk sent a message to Mr.Brockman to gauge interest in settlement,” lawyers for Altman and Brockman wrote in a filing on Sunday.
Brockman responded with a suggestion that both sides drop their respective claims, to which Musk responded, “By the end of this week, you and Sam will be the most hated men in America. If you insist, so it will be,” the filing states.
The Tesla CEO sued OpenAI, its CEO Sam Altman, and Brockman two years ago, claiming that they intentionally “deceived” him into donating $38 million to a nonprofit dedicated to benefiting humanity in 2015. The company still has a nonprofit arm, but it’s overshadowed by a for-profit entity that’s valued at over $800 billion.
Brockman is scheduled to take the witness stand on Monday.
The defendant’s lawyers are seeking permission to have the communication entered as evidence. They say it proves that the lawsuit is aimed at taking down a rival company. Musk is owner of xAI, the maker of Grok.
“It tends to prove motive and bias, and, in particular, that Mr. Musk’s motivation in pursuing this lawsuit is to attack a competitor and its principals,” the lawyers said.
The civil trial, Musk vs OpenAI, began with jury selection on April 27 in Oakland, California.
Musk took the stand last week and called the company’s for-profit transformation a “bait-and-switch.”
“Essentially, they’re trying to steal a charity, and we’re trying to stop them,” Musk said.
Brockman is expected to be questioned on his private diaries from before Musk left the company in 2018.
“His story will correctly be that we weren’t honest with him in the end about still wanting to do the for profit just without him,” one Brockman diary entry reads, referring to Musk.
