What you should know about Elon Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI

ByTech Word News

A jury on Monday reached a decision in Elon Musk’s sensational lawsuit against OpenAI, finding that the billionaire filed the suit after the statute of limitations had expired.

Mr. Musk co-founded OpenAI in 2015 with Sam Altman and other artificial intelligence researchers. But that relationship soured and he left the company. In 2024, he sued OpenAI and later added Microsoft to the lawsuit.

What you should know:

OpenAI was founded in 2015 as a non-profit organization, but Mr Musk left the start-up in early 2018 after a power struggle. OpenAI management then incorporated the AI ​​lab into a for-profit venture and began seeking funding from investors such as Microsoft.

OpenAI is now valued at an estimated $730 billion as a for-profit company overseen by the original nonprofit, and is expected to go public as early as this year in one of the largest initial public offerings in history.

Mr Musk sued the start-up, its founders and Microsoft in 2024, arguing that OpenAI abandoned its humanitarian mission in favor of monetary gain. It has sought more than $150 billion in damages from OpenAI and Microsoft, OpenAI’s primary partner. He also sought to remove Mr. Altman, OpenAI’s chief executive, from the company’s board and unravel the commercial company that OpenAI created last year to oversee technologies like ChatGPT.

Mr. Musk’s legal team built its case on a simple concept: “It’s not OK to steal from charity,” as the billionaire said during his first day on the stand.

Lawyers for OpenAI pointed to texts, emails and conversations in which Mr. Musk pushed the startup to seek more funding and floated the idea of ​​becoming a profitable company.

They also pointed to the timing of the lawsuit, which was filed years after Microsoft first invested in OpenAI and after Mr. Musk founded his own AI start-up, xAI.

Over the past three weeks, a number of tech personalities have taken the stand, including Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella; President of OpenAI, Greg Brockman; and Shivon Zilis, who served on OpenAI’s board, has worked closely with Mr. Musk for years and is the mother of four of his children. Mr. Musk and Mr. Altman also testified.

The judge accepted the jury’s decision and dismissed Mr. Musk’s lawsuit “on its face,” but some claims in the lawsuit still stand.

The last part of the process was unresolved. When Mr. Musk added Microsoft to his lawsuit in November 2024, he alleged that two Microsoft board members had undermined antitrust laws because they were also on OpenAI’s board. He also alleged that OpenAI uses anti-competitive practices when raising money for its for-profit venture.

These claims are still pending and have been proposed for a potential second phase of the process. The judge discussed the claims with lawyers on Monday. She has previously said that the second phase of the trial is unlikely to happen because there is a lot of competition in the artificial intelligence market.

Mr Musk’s lawyers said on Monday that he planned to appeal.

(The New York Times has sued OpenAI and Microsoft, alleging copyright infringement of news content related to AI systems. Both companies have denied the suit’s claims.)