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Elon Musk loses lawsuit against OpenAI after jury rules he filed his lawsuit too late

A federal judge ruled in favour of OpenAI after a jury found that Elon Musk filed his lawsuit too late under the statute of limitations

Elon Musk vs OpenAI (Representational image)

FP Tech Desk|May 19, 2026, 00:20:00 IST

The high-stakes trial between OpenAI and Elon Musk has concluded, with the federal judge siding with OpenAI and its top executives. Musk had accused Sam Altman and other members of the OpenAI leadership team of straying from the organisation’s original vision of guiding artificial intelligence development as a non-profit dedicated to benefiting humanity.

However, the nine-person jury unanimously found that Musk had waited too long to file the lawsuit and had missed the statute of limitations deadline.

Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, was once a co-founder of OpenAI, when the company launched in 2015 that went on to create ChatGPT. After investing $38 million in its first five years, Musk accused OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and his top deputy of shifting away from their originally agreed non-profit mission.

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The jury served in an advisory role in the case, but Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers accepted the verdict on Monday as the court dismissed Musk’s claims. The trial began on April 27 in Oakland, California.

Over the course of the trial, several prominent tech figures testified, including Satya Nadella, Sam Altman, Greg Brockman, and others. The proceedings shed light on the fallout between two Silicon Valley titans and the early beginnings of OpenAI. The company is now valued at $852 billion and is moving towards what could be one of the largest public offerings in history.

The jury found that Musk’s claims were filed outside the statute of limitations, deciding that he had three years to sue and did not file on time. “There’s a substantial amount of evidence to support the jury’s finding,” the judge said in wrapping up the three-week trial in Oakland, California.

Addressing Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, Musk’s lawyer Steven Molo reserved his client’s right to appeal. Musk had sued Altman and OpenAI in 2024, alleging that they violated their commitment to keep the artificial intelligence lab as a non-profit. Microsoft, which had invested in OpenAI as early as 2019, was also named as a defendant in the suit, with Musk claiming the software giant aided and abetted the AI startup in its alleged breach of charitable trust. The court said that the claim against Microsoft was also dismissed.

Musk’s team sought to have the court force OpenAI and Microsoft to give up as much as $134 billion in “ill-gotten gains,” remove Altman and OpenAI President Greg Brockman from leadership, and unwind the company’s 2025 restructuring that enabled the growth of its for-profit arm. Musk also argued that any money recovered in such a case should be directed to charity rather than returned to him personally.

OpenAI’s lawyers argued that Musk’s donations were not restricted in any way, and that the restructuring was necessary to compete in a costly race against Google and DeepMind. They also highlighted that Musk had previously floated a for-profit structure on the condition that he would retain control and potentially integrate the company more closely with Tesla.

In late March, OpenAI raised $122 billion at a valuation of over $850 billion. The ChatGPT maker is racing to advance its models and expand customer services while also trying to keep pace with Anthropic in the enterprise AI market.

Meanwhile, Musk is expected to begin meeting with investors soon ahead of an IPO for SpaceX, which was valued at $1.25 trillion after merging with xAI in February. SpaceX had filed for an IPO confidentially and may make its prospectus public this week.

First Published:May 18, 2026, 23:42:32 IST