Elon Musk suffered the worst possible failure in its legal battle against OpenAI as a federal jury and judge decided he waited too long to bring his claims against the AI startup and its chief executives, Sam Altman and Greg Brockman.
The jury’s decision was a nonbinding recommendation sent to U.S. district judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, though she immediately accepted Monday as her own, making it final.
The panel of nine members delivered the verdict unanimously in an Oakland, California courtroom on Monday after deliberating for less than two hours. They found that the statute of limitations had expired before Musk did opened his case in 2024. Musk had hoped to convince the jury that Altman and Brockman, with the help of Microsoft’s cash, turned OpenAI into a bigger company than what was imagined when the three of them and others started it as a nonprofit nearly 11 years ago.
Because the jury found that the case was not filed in time, it did not consider Musk’s three claims, including breach of charitable trust, unjust enrichment, and, against Microsoft, aiding and abetting.
Musk, Altman, and Brockman were not present when the jury delivered its verdict in Gonzalez Rogers’ courtroom in Oakland, California. Attorneys for Musk and OpenAI were not immediately available for comment.
But William Savitt, a lawyer for OpenAI, said last week that Musk’s lawsuit and the subsequent lawsuit were a “hypocritical identity” played “noble”. Musk, under a court order not tweeting during the trialhas said little about it in recent weeks.
Despite Musk’s disappointing semi-final result, the case seems grim public image of OpenAI and its key actors. New information emerged about Brockman’s Wealth and History of Altman’s allegations of infidelity. Both were also removed from their day jobs for tens, if not hundreds, of hours to post bail, prepare to testify, sit on the witness stand, and show their faces in court.
Musk spent less time in the courtroom than the OpenAI executives, about three days before not returning. He even flew to China for President Donald Trump’s state visit last week, although technically he could be called to testify again at short notice. “I will say that it was a surprise for us to see that,” Savitt told the media last week. “Instead of being in the jurisdiction where he opened the case ready to come before the judges that he has caused to be hanged, he decided to get on Air Force One and go to China.”
Although the case it carried financial and emotional stakes, it was also a contest of bravery between two tech billionaires who broke up a brief partnership of convenience over an alleged leadership dispute, and ended up pursuing the same vision on the future of productive AI. Musk’s efforts to settle the case just before the trial began it was rejected.
This is an ongoing story. Please check back for updates.
This is a version of by Maxwell Zeff Journal of Model Behavior. Read previous articles here.
