OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) 鈥� A federal court on Monday dismissed filed against OpenAI and its top executives by Elon Musk, who accused them of betraying a shared vision for it to remain a nonprofit dedicated to guiding artificial intelligence鈥檚 development for the good of humanity.
The nine-person jury found Musk waited too long to file his lawsuit and missed a statutory deadline. After a three-week trial, the jury deliberated less than two hours.
Musk, the world鈥檚 richest man, was a co-founder of OpenAI, which launched in 2015 and went on to create ChatGPT. After investing $38 million in its first years, accused OpenAI and his top deputy of shifting into a moneymaking mode behind his back.
The jury served in an advisory role, but Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers accepted the verdict Monday as the court鈥檚 own and dismissed Musk鈥檚 claims.
Musk’s lawyer, Steven Molo, said they will file an appeal and Musk’s feud with OpenAI was far from resolved. He compared the loss to moments in U.S. history like the Siege of Charleston and the Battle of Bunker Hill which were 鈥渕ajor losses for Americans, but who won the war?鈥�
鈥淎nd this one is not over, and to sum it up in one word: appeal,鈥� he said.
OpenAI argued it came down to a business rivalry
The trial in Oakland, California shed light on the bitter falling-out between the two Silicon Valley titans and the beginnings of OpenAI, now valued at $852 billion and moving toward potentially one of the largest initial public offerings in history.
Altman and OpenAI claimed there was never a promise to keep OpenAI a nonprofit forever. In fact, they argued, Musk knew this and filed his lawsuit because he couldn鈥檛 have unilateral control over the fast-growing AI developer.
OpenAI argued the lawsuit aimed to undercut the company’s rapid growth and bolster Musk鈥檚 xAI, which he launched in 2023 as a competitor.
Outside court Monday, OpenAI lawyer William Savitt told reporters that jurors determined the lawsuit was an 鈥渁fter-the-fact contrivance鈥� that amounted to Musk trying to sabotage a competitor and 鈥漷o overcome a long history of very bad predictions about what OpenAI has been and will become.鈥�
Microsoft, an OpenAI investor and a co-defendant in Musk鈥檚 lawsuit, said it welcomed the decision and remains 鈥渃ommitted to our work with OpenAI to advance and scale AI for people and organizations around the world.鈥�
Musk was seeking damages to be paid to the altruistic efforts of OpenAI鈥檚 charitable arm as well as Altman鈥檚 ouster from OpenAI鈥檚 board. Musk鈥檚 decision to stop funding the company contributed to the rift between the former allies. Musk says he was responding to deceptive conduct that OpenAI鈥檚 board picked up on when it as CEO in 2023 before he days later.
The trial saw testimony from Musk, Altman and his top lieutenant Greg Brockman, along with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and a slew of others in the tech titans鈥� orbit.
Musk told jurors on his first of three that, fundamentally, 鈥淚 think they鈥檙e going to try to make this lawsuit … very complicated, but it鈥檚 actually very simple,鈥� Musk said. 鈥淲hich is that it鈥檚 not OK to steal a charity.鈥�
Musk鈥檚 lawsuit claimed that, in addition to 鈥渂reach of charitable trust,鈥� Altman and Brockman unjustly enriched themselves from the windfall as the ChatGPT maker soared in valuation. Brockman revealed during the trial that his stake in OpenAI is worth about $30 billion.
The trial detailed a clash between tech titans
Altman and Musk both vied to be OpenAI鈥檚 CEO in its early years. In his testimony, Altman said he had concerns about Musk鈥檚 attempts to gain more control over OpenAI, which was aiming to safely build a better-than-human form of AI called .
鈥淧art of the reason we started OpenAI is we didn鈥檛 think AGI could be under the control of any one person, no matter how good their intents are,鈥� Altman said.
Near the end of his testimony, Altman said that before things turned sour, he had thought very highly of Musk.
鈥淚 felt like he had abandoned us, not come through on his promises, put the company in a very difficult place, jeopardized the mission, didn鈥檛 really care about the things I thought he cared about,鈥� Altman said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 been an extremely painful thing for me … to have someone that I respected so much not acknowledge that and continue to publicly attack us.鈥�
Musk did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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