Too Little, Too Late: Jury Dismisses Musk's OpenAI Lawsuit in Under Two Hours, Calls It a Bid to Sabotage a Rival

The US jury ruled against Elon Musk in his lawsuit against OpenAI , finding the company not liable for allegedly straying from its original nonprofit mission to benefit humanity.

In a unanimous decision , the nine-member advisory jury at the US District Court for the Northern District of California ruled that Musk was simply beyond the statute of limitations when he filed his case in 2024 deliberating for a mere less than two hours before tossing it out. Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers immediately adopted the verdict, saying she had "a substantial amount of evidence" to support the jury's finding and was "prepared to dismiss on the spot."

Musk, who gave $38 million in OpenAI's early years, had sued CEO Sam Altman , president Greg Brockman , and OpenAI in February 2024 , alleging they "stole a charity" and unjustly enriched themselves by shifting to a for-profit structure. Microsoft was also named as a co-defendant for allegedly "aiding and abetting" through its investments in OpenAI.

OpenAI's lawyers delivered the most cutting blow revealing that Musk himself had once pushed to fold OpenAI into Tesla and floated a for-profit structure on the condition that he retain control . Lawyers argued restructuring was the only way to compete in a costly race against Google DeepMind , and that Musk's donations came with no restrictions whatsoever. The jury agreed that Musk was aware of the alleged wrongdoing as early as 2021 , the year Microsoft invested $10 billion in OpenAI's for-profit arm, yet waited until after founding his own rival AI company xAI in 2023 before filing suit. "It's too late now to gin up something to harm a competitor," OpenAI attorney Bill Savitt said bluntly.

Musk's own claim on the stand, "thinking that someone might steal your car is not the same as someone stealing it", did little to impress either the jury or the judge.

A furious Musk took to X after the verdict, calling Judge Rogers a "terrible activist" judge who had handed out a "free license to loot charities" , and vowed to appeal. His lead attorney Marc Toberoff called the outcome "a travesty." Microsoft, meanwhile, welcomed the verdict with characteristic coolness: "The facts and the timeline in this case have long been clear."

The verdict comes at a loaded moment for both men. OpenAI recently raised $122 billion at a valuation of over $850 billion and is racing toward a $1 trillion IPO . Musk's SpaceX , now merged with xAI and valued at $1.25 trillion , confidentially filed for its own IPO in April, potentially set to eclipse even OpenAI's in size.