{"slug": "elon-musk-has-lost-his-lawsuit-against-sam-altman-and-openai", "title": "Elon Musk has lost his lawsuit against Sam Altman and OpenAI", "summary": "A California jury unanimously ruled against Elon Musk in his lawsuit against Sam Altman, OpenAI, and Microsoft, finding that his claims of being misled and harmed by the creation of a for-profit affiliate were filed too late under the statute of limitations. The trial centered on whether promises made to Musk were broken before the legal filing deadlines, and the jury sided with OpenAI's defense that any alleged harms occurred prior to 2021. Following the verdict, Musk's legal team stated their intention to appeal.", "body_md": "Elon Musk’s claim that he was mistreated by his OpenAI cofounders failed after nine California jurors decided in a unanimous verdict that his lawsuits had been filed too late.\nMusk took Sam Altman, Greg Brockman, OpenAI and Microsoft to of “stealing a charity” by creating a for-profit affiliate to the frontier AI lab. Jurors, however, found that any harms that Musk suffered came before the deadline for filing his claims under the law.\nWhile the trial delved deeply into the melodramatic history of OpenAI and featured testimony from leading figures in Silicon Valley, it ultimately turned on fairly narrow questions of the law. The trial focused on whether and when Altman and the other defendants had made and broken promises to Musk, but the examination failed to convince jurors that he had a valid claim.\nIn particular, OpenAI had advanced a statute of limitations defense, which sought to prove that any harms Musk sought to litigate had taken place before 2021. (The specific date varied by the charge: before August 5, 2021 for the first count; August 5, 2022, for the second count; and November 14, 2021, for the third count.) Ultimately, the jury found that argument persuasive, which made for a short deliberation period.\n“There was a substantial amount of evidence to support the jury’s finding, which is why I was prepared to dismiss it on the spot,” Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers said after the verdict was delivered.\nThe end of the case means that one major threat to OpenAI — a potential restructuring — is now off the table ahead of its reported IPO.\nReached for comment by TechCrunch, Musk’s lead counsel Marc Toberoff said, “One word: Appeal.”\nThis is a developing story and will be updated.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/elon-musk-has-lost-his-lawsuit-against-sam-altman-and-openai", "canonical_source": "https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/18/elon-musk-has-lost-his-lawsuit-against-sam-altman-and-openai/", "published_at": "2026-05-18 17:34:43+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-05-18 18:00:06.060400+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["artificial-intelligence", "startups", "venture-capital", "policy-regulation"], "entities": ["Elon Musk", "Sam Altman", "Greg Brockman", "OpenAI", "Microsoft", "TechCrunch", "Marc Toberoff", "Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/elon-musk-has-lost-his-lawsuit-against-sam-altman-and-openai", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/elon-musk-has-lost-his-lawsuit-against-sam-altman-and-openai.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/elon-musk-has-lost-his-lawsuit-against-sam-altman-and-openai.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/elon-musk-has-lost-his-lawsuit-against-sam-altman-and-openai.jsonld"}}