Jury Hands Elon Musk Embarrassing Loss Against OpenAI
Elon Musk accused Sam Altman of taking OpenAI too far from the company’s charitable principles.

A federal jury rejected Elon Musk’s lawsuit against Sam Altman and OpenAI Monday, in part because the statute of limitations had expired.
Musk alleged that OpenAI, including Altman and company president Greg Brockman, had breached OpenAI’s charitable trust by turning the organization into a for-profit company. He also claimed that Microsoft had aided and abetted such a breach.
An advisory jury in Oakland, California, determined that Musk had waited too long to bring his $150 billion lawsuit forward, and tossed his claim against Microsoft out along with it.
Musk filed his complaint against OpenAI in the summer of 2024, but the jury found that he was aware of the behavior discussed in his suit as far back as 2021. That puts his claim beyond the three-year statute of limitations.
The jury served in an advisory role and delivered its opinion to Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, who accepted the verdict. Steven Molo, Musk’s lead counsel, said that he intends to appeal the decision, though Marc Toberoff, who represented Musk in court, declined to offer a basis for that appeal, according to The New York Times.
Even if Musk’s case hadn’t been dismissed on procedural grounds, it’s not clear it would’ve been successful. When Musk took the stand last month, he somehow managed to undermine his entire case.









