Musk loses OpenAI court battle after jury finds he waited too long to sue

Elon Musk suffered a major legal setback on Monday after a federal jury dismissed his $150 billion lawsuit against OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman.

Musk claimed OpenAI had “stolen a charity” by turning a nonprofit organization into a for-profit company.

After a three-week trial in Oakland, California, the nine-person jury took less than two hours to decide Musk had missed the legal deadline to sue, as the case fell outside the three-year statute of limitations. OpenAI’s shift to for-profit status occurred in 2019, and the complaint came in 2024.

Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers quickly accepted the verdict and dismissed the claims against OpenAI and its investor, Microsoft.

Clash over OpenAI’s mission
The closely watched case highlighted the fallout between Musk and Altman, once allies who helped launch OpenAI in 2015. 

Musk, who invested about $38 million in the startup’s early years, accused Altman and co-founder Greg Brockman of abandoning the AI startup’s nonprofit mission and transforming the creator of ChatGPT into a commercial powerhouse, reportedly valued at $852 billion.

Musk claimed that executives unfairly benefited from ChatGPT’s success and sought to block OpenAI’s transition into a for-profit company.

Altman maintained that the lawsuit stemmed from business rivalry after Musk launched rival AI company xAI in 2023. He further claimed that Musk was involved in 2017 talks to convert OpenAI into a for-profit entity and that he departed the lab soon after his attempt to gain “total control” was unsuccessful.

What the verdict means
The ruling preserves OpenAI’s position in the global AI race and removes a major hurdle to a potential IPO that could become one of the largest in tech history. The decision also cleared Microsoft of the case.

The lawsuit also brought to light other details.

OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever testified that he had told the board that Altman repeatedly lied.

Altman testified that Musk had at one point suggested merging OpenAI with Tesla and, separately, proposed giving control of the organization to his children.

Musk criticized a federal jury’s decision, citing the ruling a “technicality” and said he will appeal the case.

The trial also exposed years of tension and power struggles between Musk and Altman following Musk’s departure from OpenAI in 2018, along with internal concerns over the company’s rapid push toward commercial AI dominance.