Musk loses lawsuit against OpenAI and its leaders

An Oakland jury found OpenAI not liable for breach of charitable trust in a lawsuit brought by Elon Musk against the company and co-founders Sam Altman and Greg Brockman. Musk alleged the company breached the trust by creating a for-profit arm, which is now valued above $800 billion. Musk helped found the company and contributed $38 million in its early days, before leaving its board in 2018. Musk v. Altman et al., 4:24-cv-04722 (N.D. Cal., filed Aug. 5, 2024). 

"The finding of the jury confirms that what this lawsuit was is a hypocritical attempt to sabotage a competitor and to overcome a long history of very bad predictions about what OpenAI has been," Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz partner William Savitt, who led OpenAI's trial team, told reporters outside the courthouse after the verdict was read.

Co-defendant Microsoft, which Musk says aided the breach with $13 billion in investments, was found not liable as well.

The jury found that the claims were barred by the statute of limitations, needing less than two hours of deliberations to reach the conclusion.

While the jury was serving in an advisory capacity, U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers said she would accept the verdict.

"The judge said to the jury, 'Go see whether this is something that just came too late,'" Savitt said.

Savitt said that the jury's conclusion hits at the core of the case rather than a technicality.

"It's not a technical decision, it's a substantive one. It says, 'You brought your claims too late, and you did it because you were sitting on them to use them as a weapon [against] a competitor you can't compete with in the marketplace." 

Musk is represented by MoloLamken LLP while OpenAI is represented by Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz and Morrison & Foerster LLP.