Jury bars Musk's OpenAI lawsuit as too late, handing Altman a victory

A federal jury ruled Monday that Elon Musk waited too long to challenge OpenAI's pivot to a for-profit company, handing a decisive courtroom win to CEO Sam Altman after three weeks of trial in Oakland.

The advisory verdict, which the presiding federal judge said she would likely adopt, shut down the case before its underlying merits could be examined — blocking Musk's effort to force the $850 billion company back to nonprofit status, according to The Korea Times.

Musk co-founded OpenAI as a nonprofit in 2015 and contributed $38 million before leaving its board in 2018. He filed the lawsuit in 2024, a gap of four years after his last contribution that the company's legal team argued far exceeded the applicable deadlines. The jury agreed, finding the claims time-barred without reaching the question of whether OpenAI's transformation into a commercial giant betrayed its founding principles.

Musk had sought a court order compelling OpenAI to revert to nonprofit status, contending that leadership had improperly channeled his donations toward building a profit-driven enterprise. Had he prevailed, the ruling could have threatened the commercial foundation of the company behind ChatGPT, which counts Microsoft — which has committed $13 billion — as well as Amazon and SoftBank among its major backers.

During closing arguments, Musk attorney Steven Molo appealed to OpenAI's original charter. "A non-profit devoted to the safe development of artificial intelligence, open sourced as practical, for the benefit of humanity. You know, we're supposed to buy that," Molo said, according to The Korea Times.

OpenAI attorney Sarah Eddy responded by pointing to testimony from people close to Musk. "Even the people who work for him, even the mother of his children, can't back his story," Eddy said.

Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers instructed jurors that their finding on the statute of limitations was advisory, but indicated from the bench that she would likely follow it. The verdict lands as OpenAI's valuation stands at roughly $850 billion, fueled by ChatGPT's rapid growth and a string of major investment commitments.

Musk, who departed OpenAI's board in 2018, has since pursued artificial intelligence ventures through SpaceX and his company xAI. Altman, the named defendant, was briefly ousted by OpenAI's own board in November 2023 over concerns about his candor before being reinstated days later.