A federal jury has ruled against Elon Musk in his lawsuit against OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman, finding that Musk filed his claims after the statute of limitations had expired.
The nine-person jury deliberated for less than two hours before rejecting Musk’s allegations that OpenAI improperly abandoned its nonprofit mission by converting into a for-profit company, according to The Wall Street Journal. Musk is a co-founder of OpenAI, which began in 2015 as a nonprofit before converting to a capped-profit and later a public benefit corporation with a nonprofit parent.
Musk claimed that Altman manipulated him into thinking he was donating “tens of millions” to a nonprofit to develop AI for the benefit of humanity, according to the paper. Instead, OpenAI became a for-profit company.
But OpenAI attorneys said Musk’s motive for the lawsuit was to support his own AI company, xAI, which is now owned by SpaceX. They noted that the statute of limitations for a breach of charitable trust claim is three years, and two years for unjust enrichment – and Musk has run out of time.
The verdict clears a major legal obstacle for OpenAI as it moves closer to a potential IPO. The ChatGPT maker recently secured regulatory approval for its for-profit conversion, renegotiated parts of its partnership with Microsoft and raised a record $122 billion in funding amid growing competition from rivals including Anthropic.
Musk plans to appeal, saying on X that he lost due to a “calendar technicality.” During the trial, OpenAI presented emails and text messages showing Musk knew about — and at times supported — plans for a for-profit structure years before filing suit in 2024.