Elon Musk lost his lawsuit against OpenAI on Monday after a federal jury unanimously ruled that he had waited too long to bring his claims, according to both Wired and MIT Technology Review.
According to Wired, US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers immediately accepted the jury’s advisory verdict as her own, making it final. The nine-member panel in Oakland, California deliberated for under two hours before finding that statutes of limitations had expired before Musk filed his lawsuit in 2024.
MIT Technology Review reports that Musk brought two claims against OpenAI: breach of charitable trust and unjust enrichment. The statute of limitations on the breach of charitable trust claim is three years, while the unjust enrichment claim has a two-year limit. OpenAI argued that Musk should have discovered the alleged breaches no earlier than 2021 and 2022, respectively.
According to Wired, Musk had donated $38 million to OpenAI during its early days and argued that CEO Sam Altman and president Greg Brockman transformed the nonprofit into “an enormous company well beyond what was envisioned” when they founded it nearly 11 years ago.
OpenAI’s lead litigator William Savitt told reporters that “the evidence that Mr. Musk’s lawsuit was an after-the-fact contrivance by a competitor was overwhelming,” according to Wired. Musk’s attorney Marc Toberoff announced plans to appeal, telling reporters: “Appeal.”
Musk confirmed on X that he will appeal, stating “The judge & jury never actually ruled on the merits of the case, just on a calendar technicality,” according to MIT Technology Review.