Jury Rules Against Musk in OpenAI Trial

A California jury ruled against Elon Musk Monday in his lawsuit targeting OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and the AI company he helped found, CNBC reported. The verdict closed a three-week Musk OpenAI trial in Oakland with less than two hours of jury deliberation.

Jury Finds Claims Came Too Late

The panel determined Musk missed the applicable statute of limitations window. Jurors concluded he had three years to bring his claims and did not act in time. U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers adopted the advisory jury’s recommendation. She dismissed Musk’s breach of charitable trust and unjust enrichment claims as untimely. When Musk’s attorney signaled a possible appeal, the judge indicated she was ready to reject it immediately. She said the evidence strongly supported the jury’s finding.

Outside the courthouse, Musk attorney Marc Toberoff maintained the case was fundamentally about protecting charities from exploitation. OpenAI lead counsel William Savitt framed the outcome differently. He said the verdict reflected a finding that Musk held the claims in reserve as a competitive weapon rather than acting on genuine principle.

Also Read: What Is OpenAI? Mission, Products, and Valuation Explained

Background: A Bitter Split Over a Shared Origin

Musk co-founded OpenAI in 2015 alongside Altman and others. He departed the board three years later. His 2024 lawsuit alleged that Altman and OpenAI President Greg Brockman abandoned the company’s founding nonprofit mission to pursue personal profit. Musk testified he donated roughly $38 million on the understanding the lab would develop AI for broad human benefit. He sought to recover up to $134 billion in alleged gains, remove Altman and Brockman from leadership, and reverse OpenAI’s 2025 restructuring that expanded its for-profit operations.

Microsoft, an early OpenAI investor, was also named as a defendant. The court dismissed that claim alongside Musk’s others. Microsoft said in a statement it welcomed the outcome and reaffirmed its partnership with OpenAI. OpenAI’s lawyers argued during trial that Musk’s donations carried no formal restrictions. They also contended that shifting to a for-profit structure was necessary to fund competition against rivals including Google DeepMind.

Also Read: OpenAI’s For-Profit Restructuring Explained

Verdict Arrives at Pivotal Moment for Musk

The ruling lands just days before SpaceX, Musk’s rocket company, is expected to file its IPO prospectus publicly. The legal defeat removes one significant overhang from Musk’s business portfolio, though his attorney left the door open for further proceedings before the judge.

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