A US court on Monday dismissed businessman Elon Musk's lawsuit against OpenAI, which Musk accused of "deviating from its core mission".
Following the ruling, Musk's lawyer announced that he reserved his right to appeal, but Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers said he could face an uphill battle, noting that the legally mandated time limit for filing the lawsuit before Musk filed it.
Musk sued OpenAI, its CEO Sam Altman and its chairman Greg Brockman in 2024 for manipulation, persuading him to invest $38 million, and stealthily moving from an originally nonprofit venture to a commercial venture while attracting tens of billions of dollars in additional investments.
Musk accused OpenAI and its executives of "stealing a charity project."
Elon Musk was a member of OpenAI's board of directors until 2018, when he left the company and launched his own AI project called xAI.
Elon Musk loses his court battle to OpenAI
A historic ruling with huge economic repercussions of up to a trillion dollars
American billionaire Elon Musk has officially lost the lawsuit he filed against OpenAI, its CEO Sam Altman, and its chairman Greg Brockman, after a jury in a federal court in California issued a definitive verdict dismissing all his claims from the ground up , ending one of the most exciting cases in the world of technology and artificial intelligence.
Intensive trial ends in the dismissal of the case
The verdict came after 11 days of continuous hearings that witnessed intense arguments, and a review of documents and agreements dating back to the years of the company's founding.
The nine-person jury concluded that Musk had exceeded the legal deadline to file the lawsuit, as the statute of limitations stipulates a period of only 3 years, while evidence suggests that he was aware of the company's shift to a for-profit model many years before he went to court in August 2024.
Judge Yvonne Gonzalez-Rogers affirmed the decision, stressing that "the evidence presented is sufficient to dismiss the lawsuit entirely," referring to the volume of documents that proved Musk's prior knowledge of the company's directions.
Musk's lawsuit was not just a financial claim, but an attempt to reshape the company's future. He demanded the recovery of $38 million from his initial investment, the imposition of $134 billion to $150 billion in damages as "ill-gotten profits," the removal of Sam Altman and Greg Brockman from their positions, and the dismantling of the company's for-profit business arm and its return to a fully nonprofit model, but the ruling dropped all of these demands at once.
Reactions: Musk attacks decision
Musk announced on platform X that he would appeal the ruling, arguing that the case fell for "technical" reasons related to the timeline, not the substance of the dispute, and described his opponents as having "turned a charity into a closed for-profit company."
Following the ruling, Musk's lawyer announced that he reserved his right to appeal, but Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers said he could face an uphill battle, noting that the legally mandated time limit for filing the lawsuit before Musk filed it.
OpenAI, on the other hand, welcomed the ruling, and its lawyers considered the lawsuit to be "an attempt to sabotage a direct competitor," a reference to Musk's company xAI, which is in a fierce race in the AI market.
Huge economic repercussions
Reports confirmed that the ruling is not limited to dropping a lawsuit but carries a direct impact on the company's future, noting that with the legal threat gone, the way is now paved for OpenAI to proceed with plans for an initial public offering (IPO), which is expected to raise its valuation to around $1 trillion, amid support from major investors such as Microsoft and Amazon.
The case brought back to the fore the roots of the dispute between Musk and Altman, which began when the company was founded in 2015 as a nonprofit, before later turning into a power struggle, and then into a direct rivalry after Musk founded his company xAI and launched the artificial intelligence robot "Grok."