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A California federal jury nixed billionaire Elon Musk\u2019s lawsuit against OpenAI CEO Sam Altman on Monday, concluding that Musk filed his claims after the statute of limitations had expired.<\/p>\n
The jury returned its verdict<\/a> after deliberating for just 90 minutes following a three-week trial in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.<\/p>\n Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, who presided over the case, said that she agreed with the jury\u2019s unanimous decision.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve always said I would accept the jury\u2019s verdict. I think there\u2019s a substantial amount of evidence to support the jury\u2019s finding,\u201d Gonzalez Rogers said.<\/p>\n Legal experts said the jury likely focused on whether Musk waited too long to file suit under California law.<\/p>\n Vincent Joralemon, a senior fellow at UC Berkeley law school, told The New York Pos<\/a>t that California imposes a three-year statute of limitations for breach of charitable trust claims and a two-year limit for unjust enrichment claims.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m guessing the jurors got into their room and said, \u2018Does it seem like Musk knew about this in 2019?\u2019 and everyone said \u2018yes\u2019 and then they go, \u2018we\u2019re done,’\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Musk brought the case in 2024, accusing Altman and OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman of betraying the organization\u2019s original nonprofit mission by changing OpenAI to a profit-driven enterprise.<\/p>\n OpenAI was founded in 2015 as a nonprofit focused on developing artificial intelligence in a manner that would benefit humanity. Musk, who helped launch the organization and donated roughly $38 million before ultimately leaving the board in 2018, said OpenAI\u2019s leadership abandoned that principle for financial gain.<\/p>\n The SpaceX founder asked for $150 billion in damages \u2014 and promised to appeal when the jury decided against him.<\/p>\n \u201cRegarding the OpenAI case, the judge & jury never actually ruled on the merits of the case, just on a calendar technicality,\u201d Musk said in an X post on Monday.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is no question to anyone following the case in detail that Altman & Brockman did in fact enrich themselves by stealing a charity,\u201d he added. \u201cThe only question is WHEN they did it! I will be filing an appeal with the Ninth Circuit, because creating a precedent to loot charities is incredibly destructive to charitable giving in America.\u201d<\/p>\n Musk\u2019s attorney Marc Toberoff also vowed to appeal the decision: \u201cI have a one-word reaction: Appeal. This war is not over.\u201d<\/p>\n Toberoff argued that OpenAI improperly raised money as a publicly subsidized nonprofit before later restructuring into a for-profit operation \u201cwhere the officers and directors of the charity enrich themselves to the tune of billions.\u201d<\/p>\n Elon Musk\u2019s lawyer, Marc Toberoff, on today\u2019s verdict in the OpenAI case:<\/p>\n \u201cI have a one-word reaction: Appeal. This war is not over. We firmly believe what happened with OpenAI was wrong on a very basic level that you can\u2019t raise millions of dollars in a publicly subsidized\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/D6x1Ja43mB<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) May 18, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n