Elon Musk loses OpenAI lawsuit
Musk, who co-founded OpenAI in 2015 and reportedly invested tens of millions of dollars in its early development, filed the lawsuit in February 2024 seeking $150 billion in damages and attempting to block the company’s transition to a for-profit structure.
A nine-person jury in Oakland, California, ruled Monday that Musk filed the lawsuit too late under the statute of limitations. Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers accepted the advisory jury’s decision and dismissed the claims.
Following the ruling, Musk criticized the outcome on X, saying the court “never actually ruled on the merits of the case, just on a calendar technicality.”
The three-week trial highlighted the growing rivalry between Musk and OpenAI leadership as the company behind ChatGPT continues its rapid expansion.
During testimony, Altman rejected claims that OpenAI had promised to remain nonprofit indefinitely and said the organization was founded to ensure artificial general intelligence would not be controlled by one individual.
“Part of the reason we started OpenAI is we didn’t think AGI could be under the control of any one person,” Altman told the court.
Earlier, Qazinform News Agency reported that the Maltese government and OpenAI launched a partnership to provide eligible citizens in Malta with free access to ChatGPT Plus as part of a nationwide artificial intelligence literacy initiative.