Semafor reports employee pressure pushed OpenAI's president to pull political donations
Internal Slack records tie the super PAC controversy to researcher retention fears; a single source says pushback shaped the withdrawal.
Internal Slack messages obtained by Semafor show that employee pushback was part of why OpenAI president Greg Brockman withdrew his remaining $25 million political donation.
The dispute centers on Leading the Future, a super PAC launched in August 2025 that claimed more than $100 million in commitments to fight AI regulation, including $50 million from Brockman and his wife Anna. On June 11, Brockman abandoned the unspent $25 million, saying he felt terrible that LTF keeps reflecting on the company; The New York Times first reported the withdrawal on September 30.
What Semafor adds on October 2 is the internal process: a source familiar with the situation says employee pushback was definitely part of Brockman's decision, with his qualms beginning when the PAC targeted New York Assemblymember Alex Bores. The Slack messages were shared on condition they not be quoted directly, so how much weight the pushback carried rests on a single source.
LTF has since donated heavily to congressional front-runners, and candidates it has backed include supporters of a bill that would pause frontier AI development.
Sources:https://www.semafor.com/article/10/02/2026/how-employees-forced-openais-president-to-back-downhttps://siliconangle.com/2026/10/01/openai-dismisses-three-safety-researchers-accused-of-sharing-confidential-materialhttps://www.cbsnews.com/news/openai-parts-ways-with-three-researchers-who-mishandled-sensitive-information