Elon Musk Calls OpenAI Trial Verdict a Technicality and Plans Ninth Circuit Appeal

TLDR

• Elon Musk plans to appeal the OpenAI verdict to the Ninth Circuit.
• A jury found Musk’s OpenAI claims were filed after the legal deadline.
• Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers adopted the advisory jury verdict.
• Musk called the ruling a “calendar technicality” in a post on X.
• OpenAI, Sam Altman, Greg Brockman, and Microsoft were not held liable.

Elon Musk said he will appeal after a federal jury in Oakland, California, rejected his claims against OpenAI, Sam Altman, Greg Brockman, and Microsoft on statute-of-limitations grounds.

The jury found that Musk waited too long to bring claims tied to OpenAI’s move from a nonprofit research lab toward a structure with a large for-profit arm. District Court Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers adopted the advisory verdict after jurors deliberated for less than two hours.

The court did not rule on whether Musk’s claims about breach of charitable trust were valid. Instead, the jury found that the case was filed outside the three-year legal deadline. Musk sued OpenAI and its leaders in 2024, alleging that they violated commitments linked to OpenAI’s founding nonprofit mission.

Elon Musk Says Verdict Did Not Address Core Claims

In a post on X, Musk said the judge and jury “never actually ruled on the merits of the case” and described the decision as a “calendar technicality.” He repeated his allegation that Altman and Brockman enriched themselves by “stealing a charity,” while saying the question was when the alleged conduct occurred.

Elon Musk said he plans to file an appeal with the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. He argued that allowing such a precedent would be harmful to charitable giving in the United States.

Musk helped launch OpenAI in 2015 and later left the company’s board in 2018. During the trial, he said he gave about $38 million to OpenAI based on the understanding that it would develop artificial intelligence for the benefit of humanity rather than for private gain.

His legal team sought remedies that included the removal of Altman and Brockman from leadership roles, the reversal of OpenAI’s 2025 restructuring, and the return of alleged gains to OpenAI’s charitable arm.

OpenAI and Microsoft Welcome the Ruling

OpenAI denied Musk’s claims during the case. Its attorneys argued that Musk’s donations were not restricted and that OpenAI’s structural changes were necessary to raise capital and compete with major AI companies.

William Savitt, OpenAI’s lead attorney, told reporters that the verdict was not only a technical matter but a substantive decision about timing. He said Musk brought the claims too late.

Microsoft, which invested in OpenAI beginning in 2019, was also named as a defendant. Musk accused the company of aiding and abetting OpenAI’s alleged breach of charitable trust. The court dismissed the claim against Microsoft as part of the ruling.

An attorney for Microsoft said the facts and timeline had been clear and that the company welcomed the decision dismissing the claims as untimely.

Trial Covered OpenAI’s Founding and Restructuring

The three-week trial included testimony from Musk, Altman, Brockman, and Microsoft Chief Executive Satya Nadella. Jurors reviewed messages, documents, and testimony about OpenAI’s early nonprofit structure, its later commercial partnerships, and its competition with other AI developers.

OpenAI’s lawyers argued that Musk had known about discussions of a for-profit structure years before filing suit. They also said Musk had previously considered arrangements that would have given him control over OpenAI or connected the company more closely with Tesla.

Musk launched xAI in 2023 as a competing artificial intelligence company. OpenAI’s legal team framed the lawsuit as an effort by Musk to constrain a rival after he failed to gain control of OpenAI.

The verdict comes as both OpenAI and Musk-linked companies pursue major growth plans. OpenAI has raised large amounts of capital while expanding ChatGPT and enterprise AI services. Musk is also preparing for investor talks tied to SpaceX, which is expected to pursue a public listing.

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