Jury rejects Elon Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI

(SeaPRwire) –   A jury in Oakland, California has rejected Elon Musk’s claims against OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman, after just two hours of deliberation on Monday, wrapping up three weeks of witness testimony.

CNBC reports that the court, presided over by U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, upheld the jury’s ruling that neither Altman nor OpenAI were legally liable, and confirmed that “claims of breach of charitable trust and unjust enrichment are dismissed as untimely.”

Per Reuters, Musk’s attorney stated he reserves the right to file an appeal, though the judge indicated an appeal will face steep challenges. This is because whether the statute of limitations expired before Musk filed his suit counts as a question of fact.

“There is a significant volume of evidence that backs the jury’s finding, which is why I was ready to dismiss the case right away,” U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers said.

The jury’s quick, unanimous ruling comes after a high-profile, bitter court battle between two of the technology industry’s most powerful players, and could pave the way for OpenAI to move forward with its widely anticipated initial public stock offering.

According to Wired reporter Max Zeff, OpenAI’s legal team broke out in cheers and applause after the verdict was announced. The ruling is a major setback for Musk, the world’s richest person, who sued Altman and OpenAI in 2024, alleging they broke their original commitment to operate the AI research lab as a non-profit entity.

Musk co-founded OpenAI in 2015, but stepped down from the organization’s board three years later. Musk’s lawsuit demands that $150 billion in damages be redirected to a charitable trust, and asks for OpenAI’s current for-profit corporate structure to be dissolved.

Microsoft, which began investing in OpenAI as early as 2019, was also named as a defendant in the suit. Musk claimed the software giant aided and abetted the AI startup’s alleged breach of the charitable trust agreement. The court also dismissed all claims against Microsoft.

As ‘s Jeremy Kahn wrote in an analysis released during the trial’s first week, the judge and jurors in the case (the jury’s verdict was merely advisory) had to determine two core questions: whether communications between Altman, Brockman, and Musk around OpenAI’s founding established a formal “charitable trust”, and whether Altman and Brockman later violated that trust when they restructured OpenAI to remove the non-profit board’s exclusive control over its for-profit division. They also needed to rule on Musk’s claims that Altman and Brockman gained unlawful personal profit as OpenAI shifted from a research-focused lab to a primarily commercial business.

“Most legal analysts say Musk’s case is weak and that he is likely to lose,” Kahn wrote. “In fact, I’m surprised the case has even gone to trial. I thought Musk would choose to settle at the last minute. I have long assumed this is one of those legal cases where the lawsuit itself was the entire point, not whether Musk ultimately won.”