SpaceX and Tesla boss Elon Musk has been dealt a massive blow after a federal jury ruled that the billionaire waited too long to sue OpenAI and its co-founders.
In a unanimous verdict, the jury in an Oakland, California, federal court delivered a decisive victory to the ChatGPT startup, ending one of Silicon Valley’s most closely watched courtroom battles.
Verdict
The verdict followed 11 days of testimony and arguments, during which Musk’s and Altman’s credibility came under repeated attack.
The jury deliberated for less than two hours before reaching a verdict.
Trial
The trial saw some of the most powerful figures in Silicon Valley go head-to-head with their competing ambitions for the rapidly changing technology.
Battle
Following the verdict, Musk’s lawyer said he reserved the right to appeal, but the judge suggested he may have an uphill battle because whether the statute of limitations ran out before Musk sued was a factual issue.
“There’s a substantial amount of evidence to support the jury’s finding, which is why I was prepared to dismiss on the spot,” US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers told AFP.
Musk responds
Taking to his social media platform X, after the verdict, Musk claimed the judge and jury never actually ruled on the merits of the case, “just on a calendar technicality.”
“There is no question to anyone following the case in detail that Altman and Brockman did in fact enrich themselves by stealing a charity. The only question is when they did it!
“I will be filing an appeal with the Ninth Circuit, because creating a precedent to loot charities is incredibly destructive to charitable giving in America. OpenAI was founded to benefit all of humanity,” Musk said.
‘Stealing charity’
In his 2024 lawsuit, Musk accused OpenAI, its chief executive, Sam Altman, and its president, Greg Brockman, of manipulating him into giving $38 million (R632 million), then going behind his back by attaching a for-profit business to its original nonprofit and accepting tens of billions of dollars from Microsoft and other investors.
Musk called the OpenAI defendants’ conduct “stealing a charity”.
“I was a fool,” Musk told the court earlier this month. “I gave them free funding to create a startup.”
OpenAI
OpenAI was founded by Altman, Musk and several others in 2015. Musk left its board in 2018, and OpenAI set up a for-profit business the next year.
Many people have begun using AI as a digital aid for education, facial recognition, financial advice, journalism, legal research, medical diagnoses, and the production of harmful deepfakes.
