Musk lawsuit against OpenAI thrown out by jury
Elon Musk’s $150 billion lawsuit against his fellow OpenAI founders ended in a quick and unceremonious death on Monday.
After spending more than three weeks listening to witnesses, including Musk, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, the nine-member Oakland jury took just two hours to decide that Musk’s case had no merit — based on timing alone.
Musk was seeking damages for converting OpenAI from a non-profit company to a for-profit company run by a non-profit board of directors. He claimed a $10 billion investment by Microsoft in 2023 came about when he realized the ChatGPT creator was moving away from the original terms of his charitable foundation.
But much of the courtroom drama revolved around whether his trial fell within the statute of limitations for such a case. Musk’s team worked to prove that he wasn’t worried about OpenAI being “captured” by Microsoft before 2023 – despite a 2020 tweet from Musk that said exactly that, to take just one example.
Musk’s lawyers at the courthouse told reporters Monday they would appeal the verdict.
Crushable speed of light
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In theory, the jury’s decision was advisory, meaning federal judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers could still have ruled in Musk’s favor if she disagreed. But Rogers agreed and dropped the lawsuit.
Rogers did not prove to be a great friend of Musk during the trial, reminding the billionaire that he was “not a lawyer” despite having taken Law 101 in college.
Musk also didn’t help his case by fleeing to China last week, when the judge asked him to stay close in case he needed to testify again. Lawyers for Altman and the other co-founders took advantage of this fact in their closing arguments, emphasizing that their clients had indeed shown up.
The jury then seemed sympathetic to OpenAI’s lawyer, and the speed of its verdict confirmed its sympathy.
OpenAI escapes unscathed. The company will continue its march toward a potential $1 trillion IPO — one of the most anticipated public offerings of the decade. Altman also has reason to rejoice, even though Musk’s advice paints him as fundamentally untrustworthy (echoing a recent New Yorkers investigation) and led him to confirm for the first time that he holds an equity stake in OpenAI.
Musk has not tweeted since the trial verdict. Altman, meanwhile, simply congratulated the ChatGPT team on its latest release.
