The United States jury has ruled against Elon Musk, the richest man in the world. According to the jurors, the company cannot be held liable for claims Musk sued OpenAI for deviating from its mission to serve humanity. This information is known from the report of the news agency Reuters.
In a unanimous verdict in federal court in Oakland, California, the jury said Musk filed the lawsuit too late. Jurors took less than two hours to reach their verdict. The three-week trial was seen as a pivotal moment for the future of OpenAI and artificial intelligence as a whole. In particular, the question of how AI will be used and who will benefit from it was also at the center of the trial.
As a result of this ruling, OpenAI’s potential IPO launch or entry into the stock market has become easier. It is estimated that the IPO could value the company at one trillion dollars. But OpenAI CEO Sam Altman now has to deal with a reputational crisis. Several witnesses at the trial described him as an outright ‘liar’.
After the verdict, Musk said he would appeal. He also claimed that Altman and OpenAI president Greg Brockman used OpenAI as a tool to gain enormous wealth. In a post on X, Musk wrote, ‘Altman and Brockman actually made themselves rich by taking over a charity. The only question is when did they do it!’ He added, “If such a pattern of charity looting were to occur, it would be devastating to the culture of charitable giving in the United States.”
U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, who oversaw the trial, told the court after the ruling that Musk faces a tough road ahead on appeal. Because whether the statute of limitations had lapsed before the suit was filed was a question of genuine fact. The judge said, ‘There is sufficient evidence to support the jury’s decision. That is why I was ready to dismiss the case immediately if I wanted to.’
Musk alleges in his lawsuit that Altman, Brockman and OpenAI misled him into investing $38 million. Later, unbeknownst to him, a for-profit business was merged with the original non-profit and billions of dollars were taken from other investors, including Microsoft.
Mark Toberoff, Musk’s lawyer, said the ruling could encourage future startups that start out as nonprofits but later go on to raise large sums of money, build profitable businesses and enrich their executives. “It’s a whole new formula for Silicon Valley,” he said.
Earlier, in 2015, Altman, Musk and others founded OpenAI. Musk left its board of directors in 2018. The following year OpenAI built a profitable business unit. Later, Musk himself founded an artificial intelligence company called XAI. It is currently part of its aerospace and satellite company SpaceX.
OpenAI argued in court that Musk originally saw the economic potential. He is too late to claim that OpenAI has breached its founding agreement to create safe and humane artificial intelligence. Musk had a three-year statutory deadline to file a lawsuit. OpenAI’s lawyers said the lawsuit, filed in August 2024, was too late. Because Musk knew about OpenAI’s expansion plans a few years ago.
Bill Savitt, a lawyer for OpenAI, said after the verdict that Musk’s case was “a fictional story that has no connection to reality.” He also referred to it as a ‘hypocritical attempt to damage a rival’. In his words, ‘the jury threw it exactly where it should have been, to one side.’
Microsoft was also accused of cooperating in the case. Microsoft has spent more than $100 billion on its partnership with OpenAI, a company executive testified during the trial. A Microsoft spokesperson said, ‘The facts and timeline of this case have been clear for a long time. We therefore welcome the jury’s decision to dismiss these claims as out of time.’
Musk said OpenAI failed to prioritize AI security and sought to enrich investors and insiders at the expense of nonprofit organizations. He also claims that Microsoft knew from the start that OpenAI was more interested in money than human welfare.
Steven Mallow, another of Musk’s lawyers, reminded jurors in closing arguments that multiple witnesses questioned Altman’s integrity or called him a liar. Even when asked at trial whether he was ‘completely credible’, Altman did not directly say an unconditional ‘yes’. “Sam Altman’s credibility is directly in question here,” said Mallow. If you don’t believe in him, they can’t win.’
Meanwhile, SpaceX is also preparing for an IPO, the size of which could surpass OpenAI’s potential IPO.
