Jury Rules Against Elon Musk in OpenAI Lawsuit

A California jury has unanimously rejected Elon Musk’s high-profile legal action against OpenAI and its chief executive Sam Altman, BBC Business reported Monday. The jury found that Musk had waited too long to bring his Musk OpenAI lawsuit, rendering every claim legally expired before it reached a verdict.

A Charity Stolen, Musk Argued

Musk had donated $38 million to OpenAI in its early years. He alleged that Altman betrayed the company’s founding non-profit mission by steering it toward a for-profit structure. On the trial’s opening day, Musk told the court the matter was straightforward. “It’s not OK to steal a charity,” he said, warning that unchecked behavior of that kind would undermine charitable giving broadly.

Altman offered a sharply different account during his own testimony. He told jurors that Musk had not only supported a commercial evolution for OpenAI but had also sought long-term personal control of the company. Altman recalled a moment his co-founders asked Musk what would happen to that control after his death, and Musk reportedly suggested it could pass to his children.

Background to a Bitter Rivalry

Musk co-founded OpenAI with Altman in 2015. He departed three years later after co-founders declined to hand him control of the organization. Relations deteriorated sharply after ChatGPT’s launch made Altman one of the most prominent figures in technology. By 2024, OpenAI had published a detailed public rebuttal to Musk’s repeated online accusations against the company.

The trial lasted roughly three weeks. Jurors reviewed internal communications and heard from witnesses including Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella. Musk had also named Microsoft as a defendant, accusing it of facilitating OpenAI’s structural shift. Those claims were dropped following the jury’s findings on the core counts. Deliberations lasted just under two hours.

Verdict Lands, Appeal Looms

OpenAI’s legal team was direct in victory. Lead trial lawyer William Savitt said the lawsuit bore no connection to reality and that jurors had determined Musk was not truthful in his testimony about the company’s origins. A spokesman for OpenAI called the outcome a win for the justice system as a whole.

Musk’s lead attorney, Steven Molo, immediately told the presiding judge his client intended to preserve the right to appeal. Law professor Carl Tobias of the University of Richmond said an appeals court would face a steep bar to overturn a fact-specific jury decision, making a successful challenge unlikely.

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