Altman and Brockman's stake in Cerebras is under scrutiny; over 60 groups are demanding a California investigation into OpenAI's self-dealing.

According to Beating, the EyesOnOpenAI consortium, comprised of over 60 NGOs and advocacy groups in the United States, has sent a joint letter to California Attorney General Rob Bonta, requesting an investigation into alleged "self-dealing" and conflicts of interest related-party transactions involving OpenAI and its executives. The letter alleges that several high-ranking executives, including CEO Sam Altman, President Greg Brockman, board member Adam D'Angelo, and former co-founder Ilya Sutskever, while personally holding shares in semiconductor startup Cerebras Systems, pushed for a multi-billion dollar procurement agreement between OpenAI and Cerebras. An OpenAI spokesperson responded that the relevant interests had been disclosed and reviewed in compliance with the company's internal conflict of interest review process before the transactions were approved. The direct clues to the related-party transaction allegations stem from testimony disclosed in Elon Musk's lawsuit against OpenAI. Oathed testimony reveals that while actively lobbying OpenAI to do business with Cerebras, Brockman concealed his personal shareholding in Cerebras from Musk. In a letter to the Attorney General, the EyesOnOpenAI consortium alleged that the executives' covert shareholding and orchestration of massive transactions may have violated California charitable trust laws, particularly Section 5233 of the California Corporations Act, which addresses self-dealing by trustees of non-profit organizations. The consortium requested the Attorney General to compel OpenAI to submit full documentation of its procurement contracts with Cerebras and to conduct a comprehensive audit of OpenAI's internal procedures for conflict of interest disclosure and approval. Cerebras' valuation surged rapidly before and after its initial public offering (IPO), raising serious concerns about potential conflicts of interest in the procurement contracts. Relying on anticipated purchase orders from clients such as OpenAI, Cerebras completed its IPO on May 13, 2026, pricing at $185 per share and raising $5.55 billion, corresponding to a fully diluted valuation of $56.43 billion. On its first day of trading on May 14, Cerebras' opening price soared to $350, corresponding to a fully diluted valuation of $106.75 billion. A civil society alliance argues that OpenAI's core management, by mobilizing procurement funds controlled by its non-profit parent company, objectively inflated the valuation of the privately invested enterprise, sparking a compliance controversy regarding the conversion of public charitable assets into private wealth.