Elon Musk loses court battle against Sam Altman & OpenAI

The California jury rejected Musk's claim that OpenAI breached a commitment to remaining a nonprofit.

The Musk v. Altman trial has ended with a California jury rejecting Elon Musk’s claims that the company violated a commitment to remaining a non-profit business. Although Musk’s lead counsel, Steven Molo, reserved his client’s right to appeal, presiding District Judge Yvonne Gonzales Rogers added that she is prepared to dismiss an appeal “on the spot.”

The court agreed with the advisory jury’s decision that “claims of breach of charitable trust and unjust enrichment are dismissed as untimely," as reported by CNBC.

The court, led by U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, agreed with the advisory jury’s determination that Altman and OpenAI were not liable.

“There’s a substantial amount of evidence to support the jury’s finding,” the judge added in the wrap-up of the three-week trial.

Elon Musk was a founder of OpenAI, but left the board in 2018. He filed his lawsuit against OpenAI in 2024, including Microsoft (which started investing in OpenAI in 2019) as a defendant on the allegations that the tech giant aided and abetted Sam Altman’s company in its alleged breach of charitable trust. Musk demanded that Microsoft and OpenAI give up as much as $134 billion in “ill-gotten gains,” as well as removing CEO Sam Altman and President Greg Brockman from leadership positions and reversing the restructure that led to its for-profit business. Claims against Microsoft were also dismissed.

OpenAI argued that it was Musk floated the idea of a for-profit structure under condition that he retain control, but he also, at one point, pushed for a merger with his Tesla company. Additionally, OpenAI’s legal team argued that the lawsuit was meant to kneecap OpenAI after Musk failed to gain control of the company and started his own competing xAI company in 2023, which is now part of SpaceX.

The loss in court marks a major legal blow to Musk. As we watch for further updates, stay tuned to the OpenAI topic.

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