Elon Musk said Gabe Newell gets ’two thumbs up from me’ for the OpenAI board but Jeff Bezos is ‘clueless’
Recent court filings from the ongoing legal dispute between OpenAI co-founders Elon Musk and Sam Altman have revealed internal communications from the company’s early years. The documents show that Gabe Newell, the founder and managing director of Valve, was heavily involved with OpenAI from its inception, investing over $20 million and serving as the sole member of the company’s informal advisory board in 2018.
A newly released email chain from January 31, 2018, includes communications between Altman, Greg Brockman, Musk, Ilya Sutskever, and Shivon Zilis. The correspondence reveals that Newell personally reached out to Musk to arrange a tour of SpaceX facilities for legendary game designer Hideo Kojima.
In his commentary on the released documents, Musk expressed approval of Newell’s potential involvement with OpenAI’s board, stating Newell deserves “two thumbs up.” However, Musk was less complimentary about other potential board members, notably criticizing Jeff Bezos and calling him “clueless” regarding AI and related matters.
This revelation highlights Newell’s significant early influence in OpenAI’s development—a detail that had remained largely under the public radar until these legal proceedings brought the internal correspondence to light.