Elon Musk Dealt Major Legal Blow in Feud with Sam Altman

A federal jury on Monday sided with OpenAI and its top executives in a high-stakes lawsuit brought by Elon Musk, rejecting claims that the company abandoned its founding nonprofit mission to pursue profit.

Jurors found Musk waited too long to file the case, determining that his claims fell outside the statute of limitations after a three-week trial in federal court in Oakland, California. The nine-person panel deliberated for roughly 90 minutes before reaching its advisory verdict.

U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers accepted the jury's findings and adopted them as the court's ruling, dismissing Musk's lawsuit in full.

Musk, who co-founded OpenAI in 2015 and invested about $38 million in its early years, alleged that Chief Executive Sam Altman and President Greg Brockman violated a shared commitment to develop artificial intelligence as a nonprofit for the benefit of humanity. He argued the company's shift toward a for-profit model enriched insiders and betrayed that mission.

OpenAI and Altman denied those claims, arguing no binding agreement required the organization to remain a nonprofit indefinitely. Their legal team said Musk was aware of internal discussions about alternative structures and filed the lawsuit after losing influence over the company and launching his own rival AI venture.

Musk sought sweeping remedies, including the removal of Altman and Brockman from leadership and the disgorgement of billions of dollars in alleged profits to OpenAI's charitable arm. He said he pursued the case to restore the organization's original purpose, not for personal financial gain.

The trial, which began April 27, offered a rare public look at OpenAI's early years and the falling-out between Musk and Altman, once close allies in Silicon Valley. It also highlighted tensions over how to govern increasingly powerful artificial intelligence systems.

Now valued at about $852 billion, OpenAI is moving toward a potential initial public offering that could rank among the largest in history, underscoring the stakes of the dispute and its outcome.

This is a breaking news article. Updates to follow.

Reporting by the Associated Press contributed to this article.

2026 NEWSWEEK DIGITAL LLC.