Elon Musk’s lawsuit against artificial intelligence lab OpenAI suffered a major setback Monday, after a jury found that his claims against OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman, were barred by the statute of limitations.
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The nine jurors on the court unanimously concluded that Musk’s claims of breach of charitable trust and unjust enrichment were filed too late. U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers said she would accept the advisory verdict.
Musk sued OpenAI in 2024, alleging that the lab, which was founded as a nonprofit organization, had abandoned its nonprofit mission. The lab transitioned to a partially for-profit structure in 2019, a transition Musk says makes their solicitation of donations as a nonprofit fraudulent. He sought $134 billion in damages from OpenAI and Microsoft, the removal of Altman and President Greg Brockman, and reversal of the company’s restructuring.
Musk, who donated $38 million before leaving OpenAI in 2018, cast the case as a battle over AI’s future, while OpenAI’s lawyers called the lawsuit a “pageant of hypocrisy.” Musk may appeal the ruling.
