A federal jury in Oakland, California, ruled against Elon Musk in his lawsuit against OpenAI on Monday morning, finding that neither the company nor chief executive Sam Altman could be held liable because he waited too long to bring the case. The unanimous verdict came after less than two hours of deliberation, ending an 11-day trial that put OpenAI’s founding story back under the spotlight.
The jury found all of Musk’s claims against OpenAI and Altman had exceeded the statute of limitations. Musk, a co-founder of OpenAI in 2015, left the company in 2018 after he was unable to persuade other leaders to merge with Tesla or create a for-profit entity led by him. He later accused OpenAI of violating its nonprofit founding mission when it created a for-profit entity in 2019.
Musk also sought the removal of Altman and President Greg Brockman from their roles at the company, and asked for more than $150 billion in damages from OpenAI and Microsoft. The case turned on whether OpenAI had abandoned a nonprofit mission it said was never promised to continue forever.
OpenAI and Altman argued there had never been a pledge to keep the company nonprofit permanently. The company also said Musk had himself pursued a merger with OpenAI and discussed creating a for-profit entity before leaving its board of directors, a position that cut against his claim that the company had suddenly strayed from its original purpose.
The verdict leaves Musk without a courtroom win in one of his sharpest fights with the company he helped start, while OpenAI continues to stand as one of the most valuable names in artificial intelligence at $852 billion. The ruling also narrows the dispute to a different question: whether Musk’s challenge was ever timely enough to force a jury to weigh the company’s early promises at all.
For readers following the broader Musk orbit, the case lands as other high-profile names keep making headlines, from OpenAI’s extraordinary valuation to coverage such as the Sun Newspaper report on Beatrice and Eugenie setting off for a rare royal return at Peter Phillips’s wedding.
