Elon Musk lost his lawsuit against Sam Altman and OpenAI

Elon Musk’s claim that he was mistreated by OpenAI’s founders has failed after nine jurors in California unanimously decided that his lawsuits were filed too late.

Musk took Sam Altman, Greg Brockman, OpenAI, and Microsoft to “steal charity” by creating a for-profit subsidiary of the Frontier AI Laboratory. However, jurors found that any damages Musk suffered came before the deadline to file his claims under the law.

While the trial delved into OpenAI’s melodramatic history and featured testimony from prominent Silicon Valley figures, it ultimately turned to rather narrow questions of law. The trial focused on whether Altman and the other defendants made or broke promises to Musk, but the examination failed to convince jurors that he had a valid claim.

In particular, OpenAI filed a statute of limitations, which sought to show that any damages Musk sought to litigate occurred before 2021. (The exact date varied by count: before August 5, 2021 for count one, August 5, 2022 for count two, and November 14, 2021 for count three). In the end, the jury found this argument convincing, cutting it short. Deliberation period.

“There was a significant amount of evidence to support the jury’s conclusions, which is why I was prepared to reject them immediately,” Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers said after the ruling.

The end of the case means that one of the main threats facing OpenAI – a potential restructuring – is now off the table ahead of the announced IPO.

The ruling came in the middle of a hearing to determine the potential damages that Musk might suffer if the ruling went the other way. While that discussion remains moot at the moment, the judge seemed unconvinced by the analogy drawn by Musk’s lawyers between his charitable contributions and his investments in a for-profit startup.

When contacted by TechCrunch for comment, Mark Toberoff, Musk’s lead lawyer, said, “One word: appeal.”

This is a developing story and will be updated.