Jury Strikes Down Musk’s Lawsuit Against OpenAI

(MENAFN) A California federal jury on Monday dealt Elon Musk a decisive legal blow, rejecting his lawsuit against OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and bringing a contentious three-week courtroom battle between two of the tech world's most powerful billionaires to a definitive close, media reports confirmed.

Musk initiated the legal action in 2024, targeting Altman and OpenAI — the artificial intelligence firm behind ChatGPT — alleging the company had broken a foundational commitment to operate as a nonprofit organization. Microsoft, an early OpenAI investor since 2019, was also dragged into the litigation, with Musk accusing the software behemoth of having "aided and abetted" the AI startup in what he characterized as a betrayal of charitable trust. That claim, too, was thrown out.

Musk had pressed the court to compel OpenAI and Microsoft to surrender up to $134 billion in what he labeled "ill-gotten gains," strip Altman and OpenAI President Greg Brockman of their leadership roles, and reverse the company's 2025 corporate restructuring that accelerated the expansion of its for-profit operations. Musk stipulated that any recovered funds should flow to an OpenAI-affiliated charity rather than to himself.

Despite the sweeping nature of his allegations, the jury's rejection hinged on procedural grounds: jurors concluded that Musk's claims had been filed beyond the applicable statute of limitations, determining he had a three-year window to pursue legal action against Altman and OpenAI — and had failed to act within it.

"There's a substantial amount of evidence to support the jury's finding," US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers declared in delivering the final ruling, adding that she was fully prepared to dismiss Musk's claims "on the spot."

Judge Gonzalez Rogers aligned with the advisory jury's conclusion that Altman and OpenAI bore no liability, confirming that "claims of breach of charitable trust and unjust enrichment are dismissed as untimely."

Musk was among OpenAI's founding figures in 2015 before departing its board three years later. Opponents of the lawsuit long argued his legal campaign was rooted in envy toward Altman — once a close ally — for successfully scaling OpenAI into one of the world's most valuable AI enterprises.

Throughout proceedings, Musk maintained that OpenAI executives "stole a charity" and that Altman and Brockman had abandoned the organization's founding humanitarian principles for personal financial gain. Musk testified that he contributed roughly $38 million to OpenAI under the explicit belief that it would develop artificial intelligence "for the benefit of humanity," not to enrich any individual.

The irony of the lawsuit was not lost on OpenAI's legal team, which argued the litigation was little more than a calculated strike against a business rival — particularly given that Musk himself launched a competing AI venture, xAI, in 2023, now folded into SpaceX.

Monday's verdict lands at a pivotal moment for both executives, as each races to take their respective companies public in what analysts expect to be among the most high-profile stock market debuts in recent memory. OpenAI secured $122 billion in fresh funding in late March at a valuation exceeding $850 billion. Meanwhile, SpaceX — which merged with xAI in February at a combined valuation of $1.25 trillion — confidentially filed for an IPO in April and may release its public prospectus as early as this week.

Musk's attorney, Steven Molo, told reporters following the verdict that his client reserves the right to appeal.

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