Elon Musk Loses High-Stakes Lawsuit Against OpenAI as Jury Rules Claims Filed Too Late
OAKLAND, California — May 19, 2026 — A federal jury in Oakland, California, dismissed a blockbuster lawsuit filed by Elon Musk against OpenAI and its co-founders Sam Altman and Greg Brockman, ruling that the tech billionaire waited too long to bring his claims that the ChatGPT maker had abandoned its original nonprofit mission in pursuit of profit .
The unanimous decision, reached by a nine-person jury after less than two hours of deliberation, concluded that the statute of limitations had expired on Musk’s claims, ending a three-week trial that laid bare the bitter rivalry between Silicon Valley’s most prominent artificial intelligence figures .
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The Jury’s Decision
The advisory jury found that Musk’s claims against OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, President Greg Brockman, The OpenAI Foundation and Microsoft were barred by statutes of limitations, leaving the billionaire’s core arguments—that OpenAI had breached a charitable trust and been unjustly enriched—largely unaddressed .
US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, who had asked the jury to advise her on the matter, accepted and confirmed their determination. “There’s a substantial amount of evidence to support the jury’s finding,” the judge said in making the final ruling .
Musk, the world’s richest person, had sued OpenAI in February 2024 over its transformation from a scrappy nonprofit research lab into the approximately 150 billion in damages and attempted to block the company’s transition to a for-profit structure .
Musk’s Reaction: ‘Calendar Technicality’
Following the ruling, Musk criticized the outcome on his social media platform X, saying the court “never actually ruled on the merits of the case, just on a calendar technicality” .
“There is no question to anyone following the case in detail that Altman & Brockman did in fact enrich themselves by stealing a charity,” Musk wrote, adding that he plans to appeal the decision in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals .
Musk’s attorney, Marc Toberoff, stated outside the courthouse that Musk would appeal, restating the team’s argument that Altman and other co-founders “got away with theft” .
OpenAI’s Response: ‘A Hypocritical Attempt’
OpenAI lead attorney William Savitt called the lawsuit a “hypocritical attempt to sabotage a competitor” and said the jury saw through Musk’s claims .
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“The finding of the jury confirms that this lawsuit was a hypocritical attempt to sabotage a competitor,” Savitt said outside the courthouse. “Musk can bring his claims, and he can tell his stories, but what the nine members of this jury found is that his stories were just that—stories, not facts” .
The outcome spared OpenAI from a potentially existential legal threat. Had Musk prevailed, he was seeking to force the company to revert to its nonprofit structure—a move that would have derailed its planned initial public offering and unwound ties to major investors including Microsoft, Amazon and SoftBank .
What the Trial Revealed
The trial featured a parade of tech titans and an extraordinary archive of emails, texts and personal journal entries that gave the public an unprecedented look at how OpenAI was built .
According to court documents, Musk helped start OpenAI in 2015, contributing approximately US$38 million on the understanding that it would develop artificial intelligence “for the benefit of humanity,” not to enrich any one person . He left the board in 2018 after his proposal to gain control of the company was rejected by other co-founders .
By 2017, OpenAI’s leadership believed the organization needed to build a for-profit arm to raise larger capital and attract talent in order to compete in the rapidly developing AI field .
During testimony, Altman rejected claims that OpenAI had promised to remain nonprofit indefinitely. “Part of the reason we started OpenAI is we didn’t think AGI (artificial general intelligence) could be under the control of any one person,” Altman told the court .
Implications for OpenAI’s IPO
The swift decision clears a major obstacle for OpenAI’s anticipated initial public offering. Dan Ives of Wedbush Securities told AFP: “This is an important victory for Altman and OpenAI and clears the path for an IPO by removing this black cloud. Musk was creating noise around this lawsuit but ultimately it was more of a soap opera than a long-term negative for OpenAI” .
Industry analysts suggest OpenAI’s IPO valuation could approach US$1 trillion .
What Comes Next
Despite his stated intention to appeal, legal experts note that Musk faces significant hurdles. The judge noted that an appeal would likely prove difficult, as the statute of limitations question involves factual determinations that appellate courts typically defer to jury findings .
Musk, who founded his own competing AI lab, xAI, in 2023—which he announced earlier this month would become SpaceXAI—will now take his case to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals .
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