Elon Musk’s allegation of mistreatment by his OpenAI cofounders was dismissed after nine California jurors unanimously decided that his lawsuits were filed too late. Musk accused Sam Altman, Greg Brockman, OpenAI, and Microsoft of “stealing a charity” by establishing a for-profit affiliate of the AI lab. However, jurors concluded that any harm Musk may have experienced occurred before the legal deadline for filing claims.
The trial, while exploring the dramatic history of OpenAI and featuring testimonies from key Silicon Valley figures, ultimately focused on specific legal questions. It examined whether Altman and others had made and broken promises to Musk, but failed to convince jurors of a valid claim. OpenAI advanced a statute of limitations defense, showing that any harm Musk wanted to litigate occurred before dates in 2021. The jury found this argument convincing, leading to a brief deliberation.
“There was a substantial amount of evidence to support the jury’s finding, which is why I was prepared to dismiss on the spot,” Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers stated after the verdict. The case’s conclusion removes a potential threat to OpenAI, a restructuring, ahead of its planned IPO. Microsoft, accused of aiding OpenAI’s alleged breach of charitable trust, welcomed the verdict, affirming its commitment to collaborating with OpenAI in AI advancement.
The verdict came during a hearing on possible damages to Musk if the outcome had been different. While now irrelevant, the judge appeared skeptical of Musk’s lawyers’ analogy between his charitable contributions and investments in a startup. “Your analysis seems disconnected from the underlying facts,” she told Dr. C. Paul Wazzan, who estimated OpenAI and Microsoft’s wrongful gains at Musk’s expense as between $78.8 billion to $135 billion. Musk’s lead counsel, Marc Toberoff, told TechCrunch, “One word: Appeal.”
This story is ongoing and will be updated.