A federal jury in Oakland decided that Elon Musk took too long to take legal action against OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman, claiming that the organization had strayed from its original nonprofit goals.
The advisory jury concluded that Musk's accusations of "breach of charitable trust" fell outside California's three-year statute of limitations. Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers promptly accepted the verdict, bringing an end to the three-week trial without delving into the specifics of Musk's claims.
Musk had filed his lawsuit against OpenAI back in 2024, asserting that Altman and President Greg Brockman had turned the charity into a profit-focused company for their own benefit.
Musk, who was one of the co-founders of OpenAI in 2015 and contributed roughly $38 million, was seeking damages of up to $180 billion and the removal of OpenAI's senior leadership.
OpenAI countered that Musk's donations didn't come with any strings attached and that the reorganization was essential to keep up with competitors like Google DeepMind. They also noted that Musk launched his own rival company, xAI, after filing the lawsuit.
Microsoft, who was also mentioned in the lawsuit, was removed from the case. Musk has said he intends to appeal the ruling to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
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Business News
May 15, 2026 15:25 ET Apart from the confirmation of Kevin Warsh as the next Fed chair, the main news on the economics front this week included key price data from the U.S. and the first quarter economic growth figures from major economies. Both consumer prices and producer costs have started to reflect the effect of supply shocks due to the Middle East conflict. In Europe, GDP data was in focus, while inflation data from China dominated the news flow in Asia.