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PC Gamer
PC Gamer
Rich Stanton

Gabe Newell was an enthusiastic supporter of OpenAI in 2018, donating $20 million and even acting as the sole member of an 'informal advisory board'

Gabe Newell.

The ongoing Musk v. Altman lawsuit has seen the release of various internal emails relating to OpenAI, which for now are mostly focused on the early years of the company's founding, over roughly the period 2016-2020. OpenAI wasn't nearly as prominent as it would later become, but one of the surprising elements is the involvement of Valve founder and CEO Gabe Newell, who seems to have acted as both an "informal advisor" and put his money where his mouth is.

The first email mentioning this is from Shivon Zilis to Elon Musk. Zilis is a tech venture capitalist who held a seat on OpenAI's board until 2023, and was also romantically involved with Musk: they have four children together. Based on these and other emails, Zilis was both working for OpenAI and providing Musk with the inside track on what was happening.

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