After three weeks of testimony and never a lot deliberation, a jury has dominated towards Elon Musk, discovering that Sam Altman and Greg Brockman weren’t liable within the case. The jury discovered that the statute of limitations had already handed when Musk sued the 2 executives.
Musk filed his lawsuit in 2024, accusing them of “stealing a charity” following his departure from the AI lab in 2018. Although the jury within the case served solely an “advisory” position, Choose Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers agreed with the jury’s ruling. Musk’s claims of “breach of charitable belief and unjust enrichment are dismissed as premature,” she mentioned in response to CNBC. Although Musk may nonetheless enchantment the ruling, Rogers informed his lawyer she would dismiss an enchantment “on the spot.”
On the heart of the case was OpenAI’s reorganization that noticed it convert from a nonprofit to a public profit company. Musk has maintained that the transfer, together with Microsoft’s $13 billion funding within the agency, was a breach of OpenAI’s unique contractual agreements. A significant query of the trial, although, was when Musk turned conscious of OpenAI’s for-profit ambitions because of the three-year statute of limitations within the case.
“The info and the timeline on this case have lengthy been clear, and we welcome the jury’s resolution to dismiss these claims as premature,” a Microsoft spokesperson mentioned in an announcement. “We stay dedicated to our work with OpenAI to advance and scale AI for folks and organizations all over the world.”
In a publish on X following the decision, Musk mentioned he was planning to file an enchantment. “Concerning the OpenAI case, the choose & jury by no means really dominated on the deserves of the case, simply on a calendar technicality,” he wrote. “There isn’t any query to anybody following the case intimately that Altman & Brockman did in actual fact enrich themselves by stealing a charity. The one query is WHEN they did it!”
In testimony, Musk’s attorneys tried to color Altman as a dishonest, mendacity individual, even going as far as to reference his latest unflattering New Yorker profile. Altman usually struggled to reply the allegations towards him. Requested if he thought himself to be an sincere individual, Altman mentioned, “I consider so.” Musk’s authorized crew instantly jumped on that reply. “You consider so?” requested Steven Molo, the lead lawyer for the world’s richest man. “I’ll simply amend my reply to sure,” Altman responded.
When he was later questioned about statements from previous OpenAI workers, together with former CTO Mira Murati, who described Altman as somebody who would say “one factor to 1 individual and utterly the alternative to a different individual,” Altman repeatedly claimed he had not seen their testimony. “You’ve got repeatedly been known as misleading and a liar by folks with whom you have completed enterprise, proper?,” Molo requested. “I’ve heard folks say that,” Altman responded.
The place Altman got here off as meek throughout his testimony, Musk was combative and testy. “Your questions aren’t easy. They’re designed to trick me, basically,” Musk informed William Savitt, OpenAI’s lead counsel. Because the trial inched ahead to its conclusion, Musk was absent, regardless of an order from Choose Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers that he stay in case he was known as to testify once more. “Mr. Musk is not right here as we speak. My shoppers are,” Savitt informed the jury throughout closing arguments. “Mr. Musk got here to this courtroom for precisely one witness: Elon Musk. Now he is in elements unknown.” Components unknown, on this case, turned out to be by Trump’s facet for his diplomatic journey to China.
Even earlier than the trial started, Musk confronted longshot odds at securing the treatments he sought. The billionaire sought to undo OpenAI’s for-profit conversion and power the elimination Altman and Brockman from their positions on high of the corporate. There may need been a degree early in OpenAI’s negotiations with the Attorneys Common of California and Delaware the place Musk may need had an opportunity to get his manner, nevertheless it was clear Choose Gonzales Rogers was deeply hesitant to undo the work of public officers. When Musk filed a request for a preliminary injunction to cease the conversion, the choose mentioned the request was “extraordinary and barely granted.”
Replace, Could 18, 2026, 5:11PM PT: Added an X publish from Musk concerning the verdict.
