Jury unanimously dismisses Elon Musk's lawsuit against OpenAI due to statute of limitations

A California jury on Monday unanimously dismissed Elon Musk's lawsuit against OpenAI and Sam Altman on the grounds that Musk had failed to file a claim within the statute of limitations, delivering a major legal victory for the AI company.

The nine-person jury, which was serving in an advisory role, found that Musk missed the three-year window to file a claim. OpenAI had argued that Musk waited too long and could not claim any harm that occurred before August 2021. Judge Yvonne Gonzalez, who presided over the case, accepted the jury's verdict and dismissed Musk's claims. 

"The finding of the jury confirms that what this lawsuit was was a hypocritical attempt to sabotage a competitor and to overcome a long history of very bad predictions about what OpenAI has been and will become," OpenAI attorney William Savitt said outside the courtroom after the decision, noting that it took the jury less than two hours of deliberation to reach a decision.

Spotlight on Altman and Musk

The decision caps a three-week trial in an Oakland courtroom that pitted Musk, the founder of Tesla and SpaceX, against Altman, the CEO of OpenAI. Both entrepreneurs testified during the trial, along with OpenAI and Microsoft executives and legal experts. 

Musk was seeking $150 billion in damages from OpenAI and Altman's removal from company leadership. A decision in Musk's favor could also have forced changes to OpenAI's business structure and thrown a wrench into the company's plan to go public, expected later this year. 

Marc Toberoff, a lawyer representing Musk, called the decision a "travesty" and said his team plans to appeal.

"Stealing a charity"?

The case stemmed from a lawsuit Musk, the world's richest man, brought in 2024, alleging that OpenAI, Altman and OpenAI President Greg Brockman broke their promise to keep the company a nonprofit, instead turning it into a money-making venture that is now valued at $852 billion.

The case was a "textbook tale of altruism versus greed," Musk said in his suit.

Microsoft, which formed a partnership with OpenAI in 2019, was also named as a defendant. On Monday, a Microsoft spokesperson said the company welcomes "the jury's decision to dismiss these claims as untimely."

"The biggest focus of the trial around if OpenAI broke its charitable mission when they spun off its for-profit arm and accepted an investment from Microsoft for its AI technology is now mostly alleviated as it takes a worst-case scenario off the table," WedBush Securities analyst Dan Ives said in a report. 

Musk, who helped co-found OpenAI, invested $38 million in the company during its early years, which he argued was intended for charitable purposes. In his suit, the billionaire claimed OpenAI breached its charitable trust and that Altman and Brockman enriched themselves at his expense. Musk also accused Microsoft of aiding and abetting the trust breach.

"It's not OK to steal a charity," Musk said during his testimony. The head of SpaceX and Tesla missed the tail end of the trial to join President Trump and a delegation of billionaire U.S. executives for a summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

A fractured relationship

OpenAI was founded as an AI research lab in 2015. Four years later, the Silicon Valley company created a for-profit subsidiary, which it said would be governed by the nonprofit entity.

During the trial, two law professors, Daniel Hemel of New York University and John Coates of Harvard, testified that they didn't see any issues with OpenAI's for-profit entity formed in partnership with Microsoft. "It's generated value for the non-profit," somewhere in the $200 billion range, Coates said.

Microsoft had generated $9.5 billion in revenue from the OpenAI partnership as of March 2025, according to Michael Wetter, a corporate development executive at Microsoft, who testified during the trial.

The case put a direct spotlight on Musk and Altman, who were once said to be on good terms but whose relationship deteriorated as OpenAI morphed into one of the world's most important AI companies. 

During the trial, Musk's lawyer, Steven Molo, cast doubt on Altman's credibility, alleging that the OpenAI exec lied under oath and asking Altman if he was "completely trustworthy." Altman hesitated before responding, "I believe I am an honest and trustworthy businessperson."

Musk also faced scrutiny, with both Altman and OpenAI's legal team painting a picture of a power-hungry billionaire who wanted to control the company.

"Musk wanted to be CEO. I was extremely uncomfortable with it," Altman said on the stand.