Greg Brockman testified that the company's computing costs have climbed from about $30 million in 2017 to tens of billions this year
Bloomberg / Getty Images
Testimony from OpenAI president Greg Brockman on Tuesday placed the company's projected 2026 computing expenditure at $50 billion — a figure that reflects dramatic growth from the roughly $30 million the company spent on computing in 2017, which has since ballooned into the tens of billions annually.
Brockman made the remarks during his second day on the witness stand in OpenAI's lawsuit with Elon Musk, according to Bloomberg.
The disclosure adds detail to a spending trajectory OpenAI has outlined elsewhere. Those figures sit alongside earlier financial commitments OpenAI has made public: a February pledge to investors of roughly $600 billion in spending through 2030, and a separate commitment totaling more than $1.4 trillion earmarked for AI infrastructure.
OpenAI's ongoing court battle with Musk has drawn attention to the company's finances and governance. On his first day of testimony Monday, Brockman disclosed that his equity stake in the company is valued at almost $30 billion — a figure he reached after initially acknowledging a valuation above $20 billion. He said he invested none of his own money to acquire that stake, and argued that OpenAI has "created the most well-resourced nonprofit in history."
Central to Musk's case are allegations that Brockman and CEO Sam Altman abandoned OpenAI's charitable mission for personal financial gain. Among the remedies Musk is seeking is the removal of both men from their positions. Altman has said publicly that he holds no ownership stake in the company. Private investors now value OpenAI at over $850 billion.
The case is being heard in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California by Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers. Musk filed it in 2024 on four main claims: unjust enrichment, fraud, constructive fraud, and breach of charitable trust. OpenAI has maintained that the lawsuit's real purpose is to harm a competitor.
OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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