Sam Altman’s most brilliant move wasn’t creating OpenAI’s AI — it was creating a pipeline to funnel money into his own pocket.
In 2015, OpenAI launched as a nonprofit. Top researchers joined for the mission, not for money. Elon Musk invested $38 million. Regulators didn’t treat it as a commercial company. Even Musk believed.
But the CEO had other plans.
Altman started buying shares in Helion, a fusion company, in 2014. In 2021, he poured $375 million — his single biggest bet. Then he proposed OpenAI invest $500 million in Helion, which would boost Helion’s valuation 6x and his own stake. OpenAI employees saw the conflict; the board rejected it. [1]
But Altman had another move: a power purchase agreement (PPA). OpenAI committed to buy 50 gigawatts of electricity from Helion by 2035 — power that doesn’t exist yet. Helion used that PPA to raise $250 million at a $15 billion valuation, led by Thrive Capital — a firm with deep ties to Altman and over $1 billion invested in OpenAI. [2][3]
Equity investment blocked? He found a workaround.
Musk calls this “Y Combinator style” — insider deals where cross-investments and endorsements are baked into contracts, looking normal from the outside. Altman came from YC. [6]
Musk claims Altman set up dozens of such deals for himself (allegations, trial ongoing, no court ruling yet). But in November 2023, when the board ousted Altman, they said: we had no idea what companies he was investing in. [4]
Not that they didn’t try to check — the structure made it invisible. Nonprofits don’t have public disclosure rules. No one can tell if a deal is for the company or for the CEO.
Today, Musk’s trial begins — he’s streamlined his case to just two claims, seeking $134 billion in damages. See our coverage of the lawsuit. Greg Brockman’s diary, the Helion paper trail, the whole structure — all out in the open. [5]
Whether Musk wins is uncertain. But that structure is still running elsewhere. (For how the case narrowed, see our article on Musk dropping 24 charges.)
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/2048801964457140540
Sources: [1] https://t.co/3Rg0tiMiaO [2] https://t.co/nCjKvbgvbQ [3] https://t.co/vPbhtznObu [4] https://t.co/F8D9Oe3Vgy [5] https://t.co/Mbmg22gtzw [6] http://x.com/elonmusk/status/2048801964457140540 (Musk’s original post: “Scam got dozens of OpenAI side deals with a piece of the action for himself, Y Combinator”)