A federal jury on Monday dealt a major setback to Elon Musk in his closely watched courtroom fight against OpenAI, ruling that the billionaire brought the lawsuit after the legal deadline had already passed.
The decision was unanimous and came quickly, with the nine-member federal jury reaching its conclusion in under two hours after deliberations began Monday. Jurors determined that Musk’s claims were barred because the statute of limitations had expired before the case was filed.
Musk’s attorney told the court following the verdict that the legal team plans to preserve its ability to appeal. The ruling concludes three weeks of testimony and arguments that drew widespread attention throughout Silicon Valley and the broader technology world, featuring several of the industry’s most recognizable figures.
Among those who testified were OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman, OpenAI president Greg Brockman, Musk himself, Musk adviser and partner Shivon Zillis, OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever, and Satya Nadella, who leads Microsoft.
The jury’s ruling prevents what could have been a major upheaval in the artificial intelligence sector at a particularly sensitive moment. Musk is preparing a public offering tied to SpaceX after its merger with his AI company, while OpenAI is also moving aggressively toward an IPO of its own.
Musk, who contributed approximately $38 million to OpenAI before launching his separate AI venture xAI, had been seeking roughly $150 billion in damages. He also asked the court to dismantle OpenAI’s for-profit structure.
The lawsuit claimed that Brockman, Altman and OpenAI abandoned the organization’s original charitable purpose when they created a for-profit division and later secured billions of dollars in funding that transformed the company into one of the dominant forces in artificial intelligence. The complaint further alleged that Microsoft assisted the effort by investing approximately $13 billion into OpenAI’s commercial arm.
While testifying during the first week of the trial, Musk repeatedly summarized the case in blunt terms, telling jurors: “This lawsuit is very simple: It is not OK to steal a charity.”
At another stage of the proceedings, evidence showed Musk sending a message to Altman after details of one of Microsoft’s investments in OpenAI became public, describing the arrangement as a “bait and switch.”
Altman and the other defendants argued throughout the trial that Musk knew about — and even supported — OpenAI’s move toward a profit-driven model. Lawyers for Altman introduced evidence that appeared to show Musk agreeing that the company needed a structure capable of attracting traditional venture capital funding in exchange for equity in order to finance the enormous computing demands required to compete with companies such as Google.
Brockman also testified about a 2017 gathering at one of Musk’s homes attended by senior OpenAI executives, including Altman, Murati and Zillis. Brockman recalled that it was “clear there was a party there the night before,” with the home scattered with “confetti and cups.”
According to Brockman, whiskey was served during the meeting, and discussions surrounding a for-profit structure took place in what he described as a “celebratory” setting.
One attorney who frequently represents major technology companies, though not involved in the case, said he believed Musk’s position appeared to improve as the trial unfolded. The lawyer specifically pointed to Altman’s cross-examination, during which Musk’s legal team aggressively challenged his credibility.
“Musk has more of a case here than previously thought,” said the expert, who attended most of the proceedings. “The first 15 minutes of Altman’s cross-examination were devastating.”
Questions surrounding Altman’s honesty became a central issue for Musk’s legal team. Attorneys for Musk relied heavily on testimony from former OpenAI insiders, including former board members Tasha McCauley and Helen Toner, along with former chief technology officer Mira Murati, all of whom suggested Altman was not always truthful.
“My concern was about Sam saying one thing to one person and completely the opposite to another person,” Murati said in prerecorded testimony played before a packed federal courtroom in Oakland, California.
During closing arguments last week, Musk attorney Steven Molo attempted to reinforce that point with a vivid analogy directed at jurors.
“Imagine that you’re on a hike, and you come upon one of those wooden bridges that you see on a trail and it’s over a gorge,” Molo said inside the federal courtroom.
“There’s a river that’s 100 feet below and it looks a little scary, but a woman standing by the entry to the bridge says, ‘Don’t worry, the bridge is built on Sam Altman’s version of the truth.’”
“Would you walk across that bridge? I don’t think many people would,” the lawyer added.
Altman pushed back on Musk’s repeated accusation that OpenAI had improperly transformed a charitable organization, responding during his testimony last week: “It feels difficult to even wrap my head around that framing.”
{Matzav.com}