Jury Dismisses All Claims in Musk's Lawsuit Against OpenAI CEO Sam Altman

A California jury voted 9-0 that the lawsuit Elon Musk filed in 2024 had exceeded the statute of limitations, and Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers accepted this finding and dismissed the case. Deliberations took less than 2 hours, bringing the 3-week trial to a swift close.

Musk argued that Sam Altman and co-founder Greg Brockman had abandoned OpenAI's original nonprofit mission and improperly enriched themselves and investors. OpenAI countered that Musk had initially supported establishing a for-profit subsidiary, and that the lawsuit was also tied to his interests as head of rival xAI.

OpenAI launched as a nonprofit in 2015, but discussed a for-profit structure in 2017 to raise funds and attract researchers, and actually established a for-profit branch in 2019. Musk wanted control but clashed with the other founders, and ultimately stepped down from the board in 2018.

The court ended the case based solely on the statute of limitations issue, without ruling on the merits. However, had Musk won, OpenAI and Microsoft could have faced damages and clawback pressure of up to $150 billion, along with potential demands for the removal of Altman and Brockman and the dissolution of the for-profit entity. Musk's side immediately announced it would appeal.