The unanimous verdict was reached on purely procedural grounds – the jury found that Musk filed his lawsuit too late, after the statutory limitation period for such claims had expired.
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After three weeks of analyzing internal company correspondence and interviewing key witnesses, the judges needed just one two hours of deliberation to reach a final verdict and close the case.
Elon Musk vs. Open AI – what was the dispute about?
Elon Musk, who co-founded OpenAI in 2015, accused Sam Altman of breaking the agreement regarding the non-profit nature of the organization. Musk claimed he was deceived – supported the project with the amount of USD 38 million, believing that newly emerging artificial intelligence technologies (including the later ChatGPT) will be developed as a common good for all humanity.
According to the billionaire, Altman accepted his donation and then illegally transformed OpenAI into a corporation focused on huge profits. Recall that Musk left OpenAI in 2018 after the other co-founders did not agree to give him full control over the project.
Microsoft was also hit by a backfire
The trial attracted enormous media attention also because of the list of witnesses. Not only Musk and Altman, but also Satya Nadella, the head of Microsoft, testified in person in court.
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Musk accused the Redmond giant of participating in a conspiracy to commercialize OpenAI technology and take control over it. However, in light of the jury's decision regarding OpenAI itself, the judge also automatically and by operation of law dismissed all of Musk's allegations against Microsoft. For the creator of Tesla and the X platform, this verdict means a complete image and legal failure in this case.
