Elon Musk Loses Landmark Lawsuit Against OpenAI

Elon Musk suffered the worst defeat possible in his legal battle against OpenAI as a federal jury and a judge ruled he waited too long to bring his claims against the AI startup and its top executives, Sam Altman and Greg Brockman.

The jury’s decision was a nonbinding recommendation sent to US district judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, though she immediately accepted it on Monday as her own, making it final.

The nine-member panel delivered the unanimous verdict in an Oakland, California courtroom after deliberating for under two hours. They found that statutes of limitations expired well before Musk filed his lawsuit in 2024. Musk had hoped to persuade the jury that Altman and Brockman, with the help of Microsoft’s cash, transformed OpenAI into an enormous company well beyond what was envisioned when the three of them and others founded it as a nonprofit nearly 11 years ago.

Because the jury found the case wasn’t filed on time, it didn’t weigh in on Musk’s three claims, including breach of charitable trust, unjust enrichment, and, against Microsoft, aiding and abetting.

Musk, Altman, and Brockman were not present as the jury presented its verdict. Elon Musk’s lawyer, Marc Toberoff, gave a one word comment to reporters walking out of the courtroom: “Appeal.” Attorneys for OpenAI were not immediately available for comment.

But William Savitt, an attorney for OpenAI, had said last week that Musk’s lawsuit and the ensuing trial had been a “gloriously” played out “pageant of hypocrisy.” Musk, under court order not to tweet during the trial, has said little about it in recent weeks.

Despite the disappointing semifinal result for Musk, the trial appears to have tarnished the public image of OpenAI and its top executives. New details emerged about Brockman’s wealth and Altman’s alleged history of dishonesty. Both were also pulled away from their day-to-day work for tens, if not hundreds, of hours to conduct depositions, prepare to testify, sit on the witness stand, and show face in court.

Musk spent much less time in the courtroom than the OpenAI executives, about three days before never returning again. He even flew to China for President Donald Trump’s state visit last week, though he technically could have been called to testify again on short notice. “I will say that it was a surprise to us to see that,” Savitt told the media last week. “Instead of being in the jurisdiction where he filed the lawsuit ready to come in front of the jurors who he has caused to be impaneled, [he] decided to get on Air Force One and go to China.”

Though the case carried financial and emotional stakes, it was also a competition of bravado between two tech billionaires who broke up a brief partnership of convenience over an alleged leadership dispute, only to end up pursuing remarkably similar visions about the future of generative AI. Musk’s bid to settle the lawsuit just before the trial started was rebuffed.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

This is an edition of Maxwell Zeff’s Model Behavior newsletter. Read previous newsletters here.