A California jury has rejected Elon Musk's claims against OpenAI, Sam Altman, Greg Brockman and Microsoft, finding unanimously that the legal action was brought after the applicable filing deadlines.
The verdict followed a trial over Musk's allegation that OpenAI's leaders had improperly transformed an organization founded with a charitable mission by creating a for-profit affiliate. Microsoft was accused of aiding and abetting an alleged breach of charitable trust. According to TechCrunch, nine jurors concluded that any injury Musk could claim had occurred too early for his lawsuit to proceed.
The result turned on timing rather than a jury endorsement or rejection of every accusation aired during the case. OpenAI argued that the relevant harms, if any, occurred before statutory cutoff dates. Those dates differed by count: before August 5, 2021 for one claim, August 5, 2022 for another and November 14, 2021 for a third. The jury accepted the limitations defense after a relatively short deliberation.
US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers said there was substantial evidence supporting the finding and indicated she had been prepared to dismiss the matter immediately after the verdict. Her comments, as reported, underscore how the case ultimately narrowed from a broad conflict over OpenAI's history to procedural questions about when promises were allegedly broken and when Musk would have been harmed.
OpenAI's lead lawyer, Bill Savitt, welcomed the decision and called the lawsuit an effort to damage a competitor. Microsoft also welcomed the outcome and said it remained committed to working with OpenAI. Those are statements from defendants after prevailing at trial, not neutral assessments of Musk's motives.
Musk, by contrast, presented the procedural outcome as leaving his core accusation unanswered. In a post after the ruling, he repeated his claim that Altman and Brockman had enriched themselves by taking a charity and said the dispute was over when that occurred. His lead counsel, Marc Toberoff, said the next step would be an appeal, and Musk said he planned to file with the Ninth Circuit.
An appeal could challenge legal rulings or the treatment of the limitations questions, but the supplied evidence does not show that one had yet been filed or predict its prospects. Unless a later court changes the result, the unanimous verdict removes the trial-level threat that Musk's case could force a restructuring of OpenAI.
The verdict also made a damages discussion unnecessary. Musk's expert had estimated alleged wrongful gains by OpenAI and Microsoft at between $78.8 billion and $135 billion. During the hearing, Gonzalez Rogers criticized the expert's analysis as insufficiently connected to the facts, according to TechCrunch.
The immediate legal outcome is therefore clear even as the parties continue to disagree publicly: Musk lost before the jury because his claims were untimely. His broader allegations were not validated by the verdict, and his stated plan to appeal means the litigation may not be over.
