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A Federal Jury Tosses Out Elon Musk’s Lawsuit Against OpenAI
K.O.? // Illustration by Kate Walker
The federal jury in the landmark trial between Elon Musk and OpenAI principals Sam Altman and Greg Brockman over OpenAI’s transition to a for-profit company was dismissed after the claims were found to fall outside the statute of limitations.
Why It Hits: A ruling in Musk’s favor could’ve unraveled OpenAI’s meteoric rise and crippled the company right before its blockbuster IPO. With Musk’s grievances out of the way for now (he plans to appeal, of course), OpenAI’s transformation from a nonprofit into a Big Tech behemoth is nearly complete.
Behind The Lawsuit: Once upon a time (2015), Elon Musk poured $38 million into a little AI lab called OpenAI, which wanted to build systems that benefit society and act as a charitable counterweight to Google’s DeepMind.
Well, you know what they say about best-laid plans.
The drama: Musk claimed he was ultimately pushed out of OpenAI after Altman and Brockman realized they could get rich off the company’s work. Altman and Brockman, meanwhile, alleged that Musk tried to take control of OpenAI and envisioned passing it down to his children one day.
The players: Musk, Altman, and Brockman all testified, alongside former OpenAI leaders Mira Murati and Ilya Sutskever, as well as Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella… all of whom had their own stories to tell.
The decision: Rather than ruling on the merits of the case, the federal jury found that Musk waited too long to sue and missed key legal deadlines. As a result, Musk’s claims against OpenAI were dismissed, along with his allegation that Microsoft aided and abetted Altman and Brockman’s supposed conspiracy.
Final Decision: While the trial ended in a whimper, there were plenty of fireworks along the way, including revelations about OpenAI’s chaotic early days and new details surrounding Altman’s brief firing in 2023. No one emerged entirely unscathed… but Altman still comes out the victor because, legally speaking, he was never found to be untrustworthy — despite carrying that reputation for quite some time.
Musk, of course, plans to appeal the decision… and OpenAI plans to pursue counterclaims accusing Musk of “abusing the legal process” through his lawsuit against the company, per Insider. So, the drama is far from over.
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Today’s email was written by David Vendrell.
Edited by Nick Comney. Polled and Copy-edited by Kait Cunniff.
Published by Darline Salazar.