Musk v. Altman Lawsuit Exposes Private Emails Revealing Gabe Newell Brokered SpaceX and OpenAI Access for Hideo Kojima

Court documents filed in the ongoing Musk v. Altman lawsuit have made public a series of private emails from 2018 in which Valve founder Gabe Newell contacted Elon Musk to arrange a SpaceX factory tour and an introduction to OpenAI for renowned game designer Hideo Kojima.

A Meeting at Valve Sets Things in Motion

In late October 2018, Kojima visited Valve’s headquarters to discuss his then-upcoming game Death Stranding. The meeting apparently prompted Newell to reach out to Musk on Kojima’s behalf.

“Hideo Kojima (Metal Gear series, a real visionary in our field) was here at Valve talking about his new game, and he mentioned the importance he places on future work in AI,” Newell wrote to Musk. “I said I’d be happy to introduce him to the people at OpenAI and spoke enthusiastically about the work that team has done with us.”

Newell also flagged Kojima’s well-documented ambition to travel to space. “He was talking about how much he wants to go into space, and I offered to introduce him to you. He’d love to get a SpaceX tour.”

Musk responded positively: “Sure, it would be great to meet Hideo Kojima and he’s welcome to see the rocket factory. No problem to send him my email.”

Kojima’s Desire to Reach Space

The emails underscore an aspiration Kojima has expressed publicly for years. In his book The Creative Gene, the designer described the depth of that ambition in unambiguous terms.

“If I could have just one wish in my life — without hesitation, it would be this: ‘I wish to go to space before I die,'” Kojima wrote. “I would give up anything to make that wish come true: my current place as a game designer, which I’ve built up for forty-five years; I’m even prepared to throw away my family or my own life.”

As of 2020, the SpaceX visit had still not materialised. During an interview with Geoff Keighley that year, Kojima said he hoped to visit SpaceX alongside Newell. Musk replied publicly on X, then known as Twitter: “Welcome anytime.”

Musk’s Early Ambivalence Toward OpenAI

The emails also reveal that as early as 2018, Musk had already begun distancing himself from OpenAI — the organisation he co-founded and which he is now suing alongside its CEO Sam Altman.

“My involvement is very limited at this point,” Musk wrote to Newell. “I lost confidence that OpenAI could muster the resources to serve as an effective counterweight to Google/DeepMind and decided to attempt that through Tesla instead.”

The remarks foreshadow the central allegations in the current lawsuit, in which Musk contends that OpenAI has abandoned its founding nonprofit mission in favour of commercial interests.

Neuralink and Newell’s Neuroscience Pivot

The email exchange also touched on neurotechnology. Newell asked Musk whether he should connect with the Neuralink team, describing a shift in his own thinking about neuromodulation.

Musk offered a progress update that he described as “highly confidential”: “We’re now able to implant approximately 6,000 electrodes in a monkey brain with decent signal-to-noise. The electronics are compact enough to be flush with the skull, with only a USB-C opening visible.”

The exchange proved to be more than idle curiosity. A year after the emails were sent, Newell founded Starfish Neuroscience, his own neuroscience research company.

How the Emails Became Public

The correspondence was surfaced by Morrison & Foerster, the law firm representing OpenAI in its defence against Musk’s lawsuit. The full email exchange is available in the public court record.