Elon Musk broke his silence and reacted on Tuesday to the decision of a US jury to dismiss his lawsuit against OpenAI and Sam Altman.
The head of the companies Tesla, SpaceX and xAI, who is also the richest man on the planet, has already announced that he will appeal against this unfavorable decision, writes Teslarati.com.
A US federal jury threw out the high-profile lawsuit on Monday after less than two hours of deliberations. In a unanimous verdict, the jury in federal court in Oakland, California, ruled that Elon Musk brought the lawsuit too late.
In a post on X on Tuesday, Elon Musk vehemently commented on the federal jury's decision to dismiss his lawsuit against OpenAI, vowing to appeal the ruling to the Court of Appeals.
According to Musk, the decision was not based on the merits of the case, but on a technical issue related to the statute of limitations.
In the lawsuit filed in 2024, Elon Musk accused OpenAI co-founders Sam Altman and Greg Brockman of violating the organization's original non-profit mission. OpenAI was founded in 2015 as a non-profit organization dedicated to the development of artificial intelligence for the benefit of all humanity, with Musk as one of the main donors and original co-founders, before retiring in 2018.
Musk alleged that Altman and Brockman improperly steered the company toward a for-profit model, enriched themselves through massive valuations and partnerships (including with Microsoft), and betrayed the founding agreements.
In his post, Musk pointed out that the judge and jury “never ruled on the merits of the case, only on a technical matter of timing.”
He then insisted unequivocally: “There is no doubt to anyone who has followed the case in detail that Altman and Brockman did in fact enrich themselves by stealing from a charity. The only question is WHEN they did it!”
Regarding the OpenAI case, the judge & 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 & Brockman did in fact enrich themselves by stealing a charity. The only question…
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 18, 2026
Elon Musk has argued that allowing such actions without legal review sets a dangerous precedent.
“I will appeal because setting a precedent that allows charities to be robbed is extremely harmful to charitable work in America,” he wrote, while reiterating OpenAI's original purpose: “OpenAI was founded to benefit all of humanity.”
A stinging defeat for Musk
The jury's unanimous advisory verdict concluded that Musk's allegations of breach of charitable trust and unjust enrichment were filed after the three-year statute of limitations under California state law had expired. Federal Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers adopted the jury's conclusion and dismissed the case.
After the verdict, Musk's lawyer announced he reserved the right to appeal, but the judge suggested he may have an uphill battle because the fact that the statute of limitations had expired before Musk filed the lawsuit is a question of fact.
“There is a substantial amount of evidence to support the jury's finding, which is why I was prepared to dismiss the case outright,” the judge said.
Shooting attacks in the process
The verdict followed 11 days of testimony and arguments in which Musk's and Altman's credibility came under repeated attack.
Musk accused OpenAI of unjustifiably trying to enrich investors and insiders at the nonprofit's expense, and of failing to prioritize AI safety. He also claimed that Microsoft knew all along that OpenAI was more interested in money than altruism.
Musk sought about $150 billion in damages from OpenAI and Microsoft, which would have been paid to OpenAI's non-profit organization. Musk also called for Altman and OpenAI president Greg Brockman to be removed from their positions.
OpenAI countered that Musk was only interested in money and that he waited too long to claim that OpenAI violated its founding agreement, which called for the creation of artificial intelligence that was safe and for the benefit of humanity.
The trial was widely seen as a critical moment for the future of OpenAI and artificial intelligence in general, both in terms of how it should be used and who should benefit from it.
OpenAI competes with AI companies such as Anthropic and xAI and is preparing for a possible initial public offering that could value the business at $1 trillion.
Microsoft has spent more than $100 billion on its partnership with OpenAI, a Microsoft executive testified.
xAI, the AI agent developed by Musk, is now part of his space and rocket company SpaceX, which is preparing an initial public offering that could surpass that of OpenAI in size.
