Elon Musk’s claim that he was mistreated by his OpenAI co-founders has failed after nine California jurors unanimously ruled that his lawsuits were filed too late.
Musk had accused Sam Altman, Greg Brockman, OpenAI, and Microsoft of “stealing a charity” by creating a for-profit affiliate of the AI company. However, the jury found that any harm Musk may have suffered happened before the legal deadline for filing his claims.
The trial looked closely at OpenAI’s dramatic early history and included testimony from major Silicon Valley figures. But in the end, the case came down to narrow legal questions about whether Altman and the other defendants had made promises to Musk, whether those promises were broken, and whether Musk still had a valid claim under the law.
OpenAI argued that Musk’s claims were blocked by the statute of limitations. The company said the harms Musk was trying to sue over happened before the legal cutoff dates. Those dates differed by claim, including before August 5, 2021, for the first count, August 5, 2022, for the second count, and November 14, 2021, for the third count. The jury agreed with that argument, leading to a short deliberation period.
“There was a substantial amount of evidence to support the jury’s finding, which is why I was prepared to dismiss on the spot,” Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers said after the verdict was delivered.
The ruling removes one major legal threat facing OpenAI, including the possibility of a forced restructuring, ahead of its reported IPO plans.
OpenAI’s lead attorney, Bill Savitt, strongly criticized Musk’s case after the verdict. He said the jury took less than two hours to conclude that Musk’s lawsuit was “nothing more than an after-the-fact contrivance” and described it as a “hypocritical attempt to sabotage a competitor.”
Microsoft, which Musk had sued for allegedly helping OpenAI breach a charitable trust, also welcomed the verdict. A Microsoft spokesperson said the company remained committed to working with OpenAI to advance and scale AI for people and organizations worldwide.
The verdict came during a hearing that was meant to discuss possible damages if Musk had won. That discussion is now irrelevant, but the judge had already appeared skeptical of Musk’s lawyers’ argument comparing his charitable contributions to investments in a for-profit startup.
“Your analysis seems to be devoid of connection to the underlying facts,” Judge Rogers told Dr. C. Paul Wazzan, the expert who estimated OpenAI and Microsoft’s alleged wrongful gains at Musk’s expense to be between $78.8 billion and $135 billion.
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After the ruling, Musk suggested on X that he viewed the procedural dismissal as a kind of moral victory. He claimed there was no doubt that Altman and Brockman enriched themselves by “stealing a charity,” and said the only question was when it happened. Musk also said he plans to appeal the decision to the Ninth Circuit.
