A federal jury on Monday rejected Elon Musk’s high-stakes lawsuit against OpenAI and its leadership, concluding a dramatic courtroom battle between the tech industry’s most prominent billionaires.
After just 90 minutes of deliberation, the advisory jury found that Musk’s claims were barred by the statute of limitations, determining he had waited too long to file his suit.
“Claims of breach of charitable trust and unjust enrichment are dismissed as untimely,” Judge Gonzalez Rogers said, noting a substantial amount of evidence supported the decision and that she had been prepared to dismiss the claims “on the spot.”
Musk, who co-founded OpenAI and contributed $38 million during its formative years, filed the lawsuit in February 2024. He alleged that CEO Sam Altman and President Greg Brockman “stole a charity” and unjustly enriched themselves by pivoting the organization from its original non-profit roots toward a highly lucrative, for-profit structure. Taking the stand earlier this month, a frustrated Musk testified, “I was a fool. I gave them free funding to create a startup.”
The legal challenge threatened to disrupt OpenAI as it prepares for a potential blockbuster initial public offering (IPO). However, defense attorneys successfully argued that Musk’s lawsuit was a calculated tactical move. The jury agreed with the defense’s timeline, finding that Musk was fully aware of OpenAI’s structural shifts as early as 2021, yet delayed legal action until after he founded xAI, a direct artificial intelligence (AI) competitor, in 2023.
“The finding of the jury confirms that what this lawsuit was a hypocritical attempt to sabotage a competitor,” OpenAI attorney William Savitt said following the verdict.
Defense lawyers also presented evidence showing that Musk’s early donations carried no permanent non-profit stipulations, and that Musk himself had previously advocated for a for-profit pivot to compete with Google, attempting to seize control of that entity before departing OpenAI in 2018.
The trial yielded a trove of Silicon Valley secrets, featuring hundreds of pages of private emails, text messages, and internal diaries.
Disclosures included a past proposal between Musk and Meta Platforms Inc. CEO Mark Zuckerberg to jointly acquire OpenAI, as well as early considerations by OpenAI to fund its massive computing infrastructure through cryptocurrency. The proceedings also cast a spotlight on Musk’s personal life; testimony from Shivon Zilis, an executive at Musk’s companies and the mother of four of his children, revealed their romantic relationship began much earlier than publicly known, and that she served as an internal conduit for Musk after his departure from the AI firm.
Musk had sought massive remedies, including a court order forcing OpenAI to return $130 billion to its non-profit arm and the removal of Altman and Brockman from leadership. Microsoft Corp., named as a co-defendant for its multibillion-dollar investments in OpenAI, welcomed the swift resolution.
While Musk’s representatives did not immediately comment, his lead attorney, Marc Toberoff, called the verdict a “travesty” and confirmed plans to appeal.
“This is a huge win for Altman and OpenAI despite the scrapes and bruises on Altman’s persona and leadership as it removes a significant overhang on the company’s operations with this now viewed as a nothing impact’ for OpenAI,” Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives said in a note to investors on Monday.
