Musk waited too long, jury says, ends $150B OpenAI suit

Jury Clears OpenAI and Altman on All Claims

A federal jury in Oakland, California, on Monday unanimously rejected @elonmusk's lawsuit against OpenAI, CEO Sam Altman (@sama), co-founder Greg Brockman, and Microsoft, finding that Musk had filed the case too late. The jury began deliberating first thing Monday morning and reached its decision in less than two hours. Their verdict was advisory, but Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers said she agrees with the jury.

In determining that the suit was filed too late, the jury sidestepped questions at the heart of Musk's case accusing Altman and co-founder Greg Brockman of committing a "breach of charitable trust" by allegedly jettisoning OpenAI's founding mission, and then profiting from the decision. The time limits were strict: three years for a claim that Altman and Brockman breached a duty of charitable trust owed to OpenAI as a nonprofit, and two years for a claim that they unlawfully enriched themselves from the organization.

Musk had asked the court to force OpenAI to pay back more than $130 billion to OpenAI's nonprofit arm, remove Altman and Brockman from their leadership roles, and unwind the corporate restructuring that turned OpenAI into one of the world's most valuable tech companies. On the same statute of limitations grounds, the jury also rejected Musk's claim that Microsoft aided and abetted Altman and Brockman in allegedly breaching their duty to OpenAI.

OpenAI's For-Profit Future Intact

The trial shed light on the bitter falling-out between the two Silicon Valley titans and the beginnings of OpenAI, now a company valued at $852 billion and moving toward potentially one of the largest initial public offerings in history. Musk's case had threatened to derail the ChatGPT maker as it planned what could be a blockbuster IPO.

OpenAI's attorneys argued the company's mission has not changed, that it is still run by a non-profit foundation board, and that Musk waited to file the suit until he founded his own competing artificial intelligence company, xAI. Following the verdict, Musk's lawyer said he reserved the right to appeal, but the judge suggested he may have an uphill battle because whether the statute of limitations ran out before Musk sued was a factual issue.

Sources:
NBC News: Jury throws out Elon Musk's lawsuit against OpenAI in less than two hours
NPR: Jury dismisses all claims in Elon Musk's lawsuit against OpenAI CEO Sam Altman
CNN Business: Musk loses case against OpenAI