A federal jury in Oakland, California, ruled against Elon Musk on Monday in his high-profile lawsuit against OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman, finding that his claims were filed beyond the statute of limitations. A defiant Musk blamed the loss on a “calendar technicality” and vowed to appeal the decision.
CNBC reports that the jury delivered its verdict after less than two hours of deliberation, determining that Musk waited too long to pursue legal action against the AI company, CEO Sam Altman, and Microsoft. District Court Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers immediately adopted the jury’s decision, marking a significant defeat for the tech billionaire in his battle against his former AI collaborators.
The court did not examine the merits of Musk’s central allegation that OpenAI violated a commitment to operate strictly as a charitable nonprofit organization. Instead, the ruling focused exclusively on timing, finding that Musk’s claims of breach of charitable trust fell outside the three-year statute of limitations required for such cases.
Musk responded swiftly to the verdict on his social network X, dismissing the ruling as a “calendar technicality.” “There is no question to anyone following the case in detail that Altman & Brockman did in fact enrich themselves by stealing a charity. The only question is WHEN they did it!” he wrote.
Both Musk and his legal team immediately announced plans to appeal the decision to the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. His attorney, Steven Molo, reserved the right to appeal directly to Judge Gonzalez Rogers, though the judge expressed skepticism about such an effort. “There’s a substantial amount of evidence to support the jury’s finding,” she stated as the three-week trial concluded.
Speaking outside the courthouse, Musk lawyer Marc Toberoff framed the case in broader terms. “At its core, is about preserving charities from this kind of exploitation. If they get away with it, they shouldn’t,” he told reporters.
The lawsuit, filed by Musk in 2024, accused Altman and OpenAI of abandoning an alleged agreement to maintain the artificial intelligence laboratory as a nonprofit entity. Musk was instrumental in founding OpenAI in 2015 but departed from the board three years later. He testified during the trial that he donated approximately $38 million to OpenAI based on the understanding that the organization would develop artificial intelligence for the benefit of humanity rather than individual profit.
Microsoft, an early investor in OpenAI since 2019, was also named as a defendant in the suit. Musk claimed the software giant aided and abetted the AI startup in its alleged breach of charitable trust. The court dismissed the claims against Microsoft as well.
OpenAI’s lead attorney, William Savitt, characterized the verdict as substantive rather than technical. “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 to get it,” he told reporters. OpenAI and Microsoft legal teams celebrated the outcome as they left the downtown Oakland courthouse.
An attorney for Microsoft released a statement welcoming the decision. “The facts and the timeline in this case have long been clear, and we welcome the jury’s decision to dismiss these claims as untimely. We remain committed to our work with OpenAI to advance and scale AI for people and organizations around the world,” the statement read.
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Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of AI, free speech, and online censorship.
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