Musk: wire $5M per quarter to OpenAI; 'a non-profit'

From:: Elon Musk
Date:: February 25, 2016 (Sent Thursday 6:36 PM)
To:: Sam Altman; Ronald Gong (myCFO / BMO family office)
Subject:: Re: cash

Ron, we need to wire $5M per quarter to OpenAI, starting April 1. This is a non-profit.

About this email

Musk loops in his family-office adviser Ron Gong and instructs him to wire $5M per quarter to OpenAI starting April 1, noting it is a nonprofit.

Notes

Later messages in the chain (Feb 29 - Mar 11, 2016) are between Ron Gong, Sam Altman and Chris Clark about tax-exemption paperwork and do not involve Musk.

Where it came from

Court record; attribution confirmed.

Musk v. Altman (N.D. Cal., No. 4:24-cv-04722-YGR), Dkt. 391-13 (Exhibit 55, public redacted version, filed Jan. 16, 2026)
Dkt. 391-22 (Exhibit 74) and Dkt. 391-54 (Exhibit 69), longer versions of the same chain
Dkt. 379-64, Jared Birchall deposition excerpts discussing this chain

OpenAI, executive & internal. Tags: funding, donations, nonprofit, family-office, musk-v-openai

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