A California jury on Monday unanimously dismissed Elon Musk’s lawsuit in opposition to OpenAI and Sam Altman on the grounds that Musk had didn’t file a declare inside the statute of limitations, delivering a serious authorized victory for the AI firm.
The nine-person jury, which was serving in an advisory position, discovered that Musk missed the three-year window to file a declare. OpenAI had argued that Musk waited too lengthy and couldn’t declare any hurt that occurred earlier than August 2021. Choose Yvonne Gonzalez, who presided over the case, accepted the jury’s verdict and dismissed Musk’s claims.
“The discovering of the jury confirms that what this lawsuit was was a hypocritical try and sabotage a competitor and to beat an extended historical past of very unhealthy predictions about what OpenAI has been and can grow to be,” OpenAI legal professional William Savitt stated outdoors the courtroom after the choice, noting that it took the jury lower than two hours of deliberation to succeed in a call.
Musk stated on social media that he plans to enchantment the ruling.
“Concerning the OpenAI case, the choose & jury by no means really dominated on the deserves of the case, simply on a calendar technicality,” he wrote on his platform, X. “There isn’t any query to anybody following the case intimately that Altman & Brockman did in actual fact enrich themselves by stealing a charity.”
Highlight on Altman and Musk
The choice caps a three-week trial in an Oakland courtroom that pitted Musk, the founding father of Tesla and SpaceX, in opposition to Altman, the CEO of OpenAI. Each entrepreneurs testified through the trial, together with OpenAI and Microsoft executives and authorized consultants.
Musk was in search of $150 billion in damages from OpenAI and Altman’s removing from firm management. A call in Musk’s favor might even have compelled modifications to OpenAI’s enterprise construction and thrown a wrench into the corporate’s plan to go public, anticipated later this 12 months.
“Stealing a charity”?
The case stemmed from a lawsuit Musk, the world’s richest man, introduced in 2024, alleging that OpenAI, Altman and OpenAI President Greg Brockman broke their promise to maintain the corporate a nonprofit, as an alternative turning it right into a money-making enterprise that’s now valued at $852 billion.
The case was a “textbook story of altruism versus greed,” Musk stated in his swimsuit.
Microsoft, which shaped a partnership with OpenAI in 2019, was additionally named as a defendant. On Monday, a Microsoft spokesperson stated the corporate welcomes “the jury’s determination to dismiss these claims as premature.”
“The most important focus of the trial round if OpenAI broke its charitable mission after they spun off its for-profit arm and accepted an funding from Microsoft for its AI expertise is now principally alleviated because it takes a worst-case situation off the desk,” WedBush Securities analyst Dan Ives stated in a report.
Musk, who helped co-found OpenAI, invested $38 million within the firm throughout its early years, which he argued was meant for charitable functions. In his swimsuit, the billionaire claimed OpenAI breached its charitable belief and that Altman and Brockman enriched themselves at his expense. Musk additionally accused Microsoft of aiding and abetting the belief breach.
“It is not OK to steal a charity,” Musk stated throughout his testimony. The pinnacle of SpaceX and Tesla missed the tail finish of the trial to be part of President Trump and a delegation of billionaire U.S. executives for a summit with Chinese language President Xi Jinping.
A fractured relationship
OpenAI was based as an AI analysis lab in 2015. 4 years later, the Silicon Valley firm created a for-profit subsidiary, which it stated can be ruled by the nonprofit entity.
In the course of the trial, two legislation professors, Daniel Hemel of New York College and John Coates of Harvard, testified that they did not see any points with OpenAI’s for-profit entity shaped in partnership with Microsoft. “It is generated worth for the non-profit,” someplace within the $200 billion vary, Coates stated.
Microsoft had generated $9.5 billion in income from the OpenAI partnership as of March 2025, in accordance with Michael Wetter, a company growth govt at Microsoft, who testified through the trial.
The case put a direct highlight on Musk and Altman, who had been as soon as stated to be on good phrases however whose relationship deteriorated as OpenAI morphed into one of many world’s most necessary AI corporations.
In the course of the trial, Musk’s lawyer, Steven Molo, forged doubt on Altman’s credibility, alleging that the OpenAI exec lied beneath oath and asking Altman if he was “utterly reliable.” Altman hesitated earlier than responding, “I consider I’m an sincere and reliable businessperson.”
Musk additionally confronted scrutiny, with each Altman and OpenAI’s authorized staff portray an image of a power-hungry billionaire who wished to manage the corporate.
“Musk wished to be CEO. I used to be extraordinarily uncomfortable with it,” Altman stated on the stand.
