ChatGPT developer OpenAI will spend around $50 billion on computing power this year alone.
05/06/2026, 07:2005/06/2026, 07:20
Top manager Greg Brockman mentioned the number on the witness stand in the trial of a lawsuit brought by tech billionaire Elon Musk.
Sam Altman and Greg Brockman arrive in court.Image: keystone
He was once there when OpenAI was founded. Musk is now accusing co-founder Sam Altman and Brockman of converting OpenAI into a profit-oriented company contrary to their original agreements and thereby “stolen a charitable organization”. They reject that.
Brockman gave the previously unknown number when questioned by his lawyer. The amount illustrates how much money AI companies spend on operating and developing their software – while the technology is still in its early stages. OpenAI has announced investments totaling more than $1 trillion in artificial intelligence infrastructure over the next few years.
Dispute over OpenAI structure
OpenAI was founded with the aim of researching artificial intelligence in the interests of humanity. Musk claims that under Altman and Brockman’s supervision, all of OpenAI’s value is now concentrated in a profit-focused portion instead. OpenAI counters that control still lies with the non-profit core. The founding of an additional profit-oriented company was necessary in order to make the necessary billions in investments.
During the questioning, the attorney for Musk’s side accused Brockman of greed and referred, among other things, to an entry in his diary in which he seemed to be pondering a path to a billion-dollar fortune. For his part, Brockman said Musk sought full control of the for-profit part of OpenAI because he needed $80 billion to build a city on Mars.
ChatGPT is the chatbot that triggered the current hype about artificial intelligence over three years ago. OpenAI now has strong competition from the AI company Anthropic and Google, among others. Musk is also a rival with his AI developer xAI. (sda/dpa)