A federal jury has thrown out every claim in Elon Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI and Sam Altman, finding the case to have been filed past its legal deadline.
Key Takeaways:
A federal jury dismissed Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI on May 18, citing a statute of limitations. Musk called the verdict a “calendar technicality” and plans to appeal to the Ninth Circuit Court. OpenAI, valued at around $730 billion pre-funding, is targeting a public market debut by end of 2026.The lawsuit, first filed in 2024, centered on Musk’s allegation that Altman had broken a foundational promise to keep OpenAI structured as a nonprofit dedicated to the public benefit. The court did not rule on whether that promise existed or was violated and the timing issue rendered the substantive claims legally moot before any evidence on the merits was weighed.
Musk founded xAI in 2023, whose Grok model competes directly with OpenAI’s ChatGPT, creating a clear financial incentive behind the litigation that OpenAI’s lawyers leaned on throughout the trial.
