Elon Musk, the Tesla chief executive officer, lost the lawsuit against Sam Altman, the OpenAI CEO, in a case dubbed the "trial of the century" for artificial intelligence (AI).
According to CNN and others on the 18th (local time), a nine-member jury at the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in Oakland unanimously found against Musk, determining that he did not file the lawsuit within the statute of limitations. In civil cases, there is a set period to bring a claim for each matter, and they found Musk filed after that period had passed.
In this case, the statutes of limitations for "breach of charitable trust obligations" and "unjust enrichment" that Musk raised are three years and two years, respectively, from the point the violation was recognized.
The jury found that Musk was already aware of the issue before Aug. 2021. However, Musk formally filed the complaint in Aug. 2024, after the limitations period had expired.
Musk's side argued that Altman had reassured him with comments over time, which delayed the filing, but the jury did not accept that.
The verdict is only advisory, but Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers accepted it immediately and dismissed all of Musk's claims. Rogers said, "There was substantial evidence to support the jury's conclusion."
OpenAI said, "This jury verdict shows the lawsuit was a hypocritical attempt to hinder a competitor," adding, "OpenAI has been run with a nonprofit mission at its core and will continue to be."
Earlier, Musk said he contributed $38 million based on the promise that OpenAI would be run as a nonprofit, but claimed he was harmed when CEO Sam Altman and President Greg Brockman broke that promise and converted the company into a for-profit company, and he filed suit. He sought the ouster of Altman and Brockman, and demanded that $134 billion in profits they obtained be returned to OpenAI Foundation, the nonprofit parent organization.