Elon Musk suffered the worst defeat possible in his legal battle against OpenAI as a federal jury and a judge ruled he waited too long to bring his claims against the AI startup and its top executives, Sam Altman and Greg Brockman.
While the jury’s decision was a nonbinding recommendation sent to US district judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, she immediately accepted it as her own, making it final.
One of Musk’s lawyers, Marc Toberoff, gave a one-word comment to reporters walking out of the courtroom: “Appeal.” His lead trial attorney, Steven Molo, also told Gonzalez Rogers that he wanted to preserve the right to appeal.
OpenAI’s attorneys hugged in the courtroom after the verdict was read. William Savitt, the company’s lead litigator, told reporters that the “overwhelming” amount of evidence presented in the case allowed the jury to act quickly. “The evidence that Mr. Musk’s lawsuit was an after-the-fact contrivance by a competitor was overwhelming,” he said.
Throughout the trial, Gonzalez Rogers questioned Musk’s motivations for fighting OpenAI. But she concluded on Monday that the three-week global public spectacle had been worthwhile.
“I thought it was an important issue to be tried … for us to have a trial to bring clarity,” she told attorneys for both parties. “There’s a substantial amount of evidence to support the jury’s findings, which is why I was prepared to accept the jury’s findings and dismiss on the spot.”
The nine-member panel delivered the unanimous verdict in an Oakland, California courtroom on Monday after deliberating for under two hours. They found that statutes of limitations expired well before Musk filed his lawsuit in 2024. Musk had hoped to persuade the jury that Altman and Brockman, with the help of Microsoft’s cash, transformed OpenAI into an enormous company well beyond what was envisioned when the three of them and others founded it as a nonprofit nearly 11 years ago.
Because the jury found the case wasn’t filed on time, it didn’t weigh in on Musk’s three claims, including breach of charitable trust, unjust enrichment, and, against Microsoft, aiding and abetting. Losing on what amounts to a technicality could provide Musk an opening to keep trying his case in the public by arguing that the jury never ruled against his core argument that a charity was stolen.
Savitt, the OpenAI lawyer, disputed that contention on Monday. “It’s not a technical decision, it’s a substantive one,” he said. “It says you brought your claims too late, and you did it because you were sitting on them to use them as a weapon of a competitor who can’t compete in the marketplace, and so we’re delighted with the outcome.”
Microsoft spokesperson Alex Haurek said in a statement that the “facts and the timeline in this case have long been clear” and the tech giant remains “committed to our work with OpenAI to advance and scale AI.”
Musk, Altman, and Brockman were not present as the jury presented its verdict. Musk, under court order not to tweet during the trial, has said little about it in recent weeks.
Despite the disappointing result for Musk, the trial appears to have tarnished the public image of OpenAI and its top executives. New details emerged about Brockman’s wealth and Altman’s alleged history of dishonesty. Both were also pulled away from their day-to-day work for tens, if not hundreds, of hours to conduct depositions, prepare to testify, sit on the witness stand, and show face in court.
Musk spent much less time in the courtroom than the OpenAI executives, about three days before never returning again. He even flew to China for President Donald Trump’s state visit last week, though he technically could have been called to testify again on short notice. “I will say that it was a surprise to us to see that,” Savitt told the media last week. “Instead of being in the jurisdiction where he filed the lawsuit ready to come in front of the jurors who he has caused to be impaneled, [he] decided to get on Air Force One and go to China.”