OAKLAND, Calif. — A federal jury on Monday found that tech billionaire Elon Musk waited too long to bring his lawsuit against OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and others, throwing out the suit that claimed Altman had unlawfully enriched himself from the organization Musk and Altman cofounded.
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The jury found Altman, co-founder Greg Brockman and OpenAI not liable on all claims after a blockbuster three-week trial that has captivated the tech industry and could have reshaped the race to develop artificial intelligence.
On the same statute of limitations grounds, the jury also rejected Musk’s claim that Microsoft aided and abetted Altman and Brockman in allegedly breaching their duty to OpenAI. Microsoft was an early and large investor in OpenAI’s for-profit operation.
The verdict was unanimous. The jury began deliberating first thing Monday morning and reached its decision in less than two hours.
Steven Molo, a lawyer for Musk, said in court that the legal team was preserving Musk’s right to appeal but had not yet decided how to proceed.
During a recess after the verdict was read, lawyers for OpenAI and Microsoft exchanged hugs and pats on the back. None of the tech billionaires were in court to hear the verdict.
The question of whether Musk dragged his feet before suing was a primary topic of the trial, including when Musk was on the witness stand for three days.
The time limits were strict in the case: three years for a claim that Altman and Brockman breached a duty of charitable trust that they owed to OpenAI as a nonprofit organization, and two years for a claim that they unlawfully enriched themselves from the organization.
OpenAI co-founders including Musk, Altman and Brockman discussed a for-profit conversion as early 2017, and OpenAI created a for-profit arm initially in 2019. Musk sued in 2024.
“He waited too long to sue,†Bill Savitt, a lawyer for OpenAI, argued in his opening statement in the trial. “It’s too late now to gin up something to harm a competitor,†he added, alluding to Musk’s own AI startup, xAI, founded in March 2023.
Musk said during the trial that he waited to sue because he believed reassurances from Altman over the years. He said he finally became fed up in 2023 after Microsoft invested $10 billion in OpenAI’s for-profit arm in exchange for intellectual property rights and a share of future profits.
“Thinking that someone might steal your car is not the same as someone stealing it,†Musk said on the stand.
“I would have filed a lawsuit sooner if I thought they had stolen the charity sooner,†he said.
The trial was remarkable for the massive concentration of wealth on display. Altman, Brockman and Musk are all billionaires. In all, six tech billionaires testified in the case. Outside the courthouse, the trial at times resembled a small circus as demonstrators with props showed up to protest AI, wealth inequality or both.
