Musk slams Altman trial verdict as a ‘technicality,’ vows to appeal

After less than two hours of deliberations, a jury on Monday rejected Elon Musk’s claims against OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, ending a dramatic chapter in the bitter rivalry between the two tech billionaires, who were once close friends.

U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers agreed with the advisory jury’s determination that Altman and OpenAI were not liable, and that Musk’s “claims of breach of charitable trust and unjust enrichment are dismissed as untimely.”

The jury found that Musk’s claims were filed outside of the statute of limitations, deciding that Musk had three years to sue and did not file on time.

Musk, in a post on his social network X, called the decision a “calendar technicality” and insisted that the judge and jury did not rule on the merits of the case.

“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 is WHEN they did it! ” he wrote.

Musk said he would be filing an appeal with the Ninth Circuit.

Musk’s lawyer, Steven Molo, reserved his client’s right to appeal directly to the judge, but the judge expressed her skepticism, noting that she was prepared to dismiss Musk’s appeal “on the spot.”

“There’s a substantial amount of evidence to support the jury’s finding,” she said in wrapping up the three-week trial in Oakland, California.

Outside the courthouse, another of Musk’s lawyers, Marc Toberoff, told CNBC the case, “at its core, is about preserving charities from this kind of exploitation. If they get away with it, they shouldn’t.”

Musk sued Altman and OpenAI in 2024, accusing them of violating an alleged commitment to keep the artificial intelligence lab as a nonprofit. Musk helped start OpenAI in 2015, but left the board three years later.

Microsoft, which invested in OpenAI as early as 2019, was also named as a defendant in the suit, with Musk claiming the software giant aided and abetted the AI startup in its alleged breach of charitable trust. The court said the claim against Microsoft was also dismissed.

“It’s not a technical decision, it’s a substantive one,” the lead attorney for OpenAI, William Savitt, told reporters. “It says: You brought your claims too late, and you did it because you were sitting on them to use them as a weapon of a competitor who can’t compete in the marketplace. And so we’re delighted to get it.” 

Counsel for OpenAI and Microsoft celebrated with hugs and back slaps as they departed the courtroom in downtown Oakland.

“The facts and the timeline in this case have long been clear, and we welcome the jury’s decision to dismiss these claims as untimely,” an attorney for Microsoft said in a statement. “We remain committed to our work with OpenAI to advance and scale AI for people and organizations around the world.”

Musk’s team wanted the court to force OpenAI and Microsoft to give up as much as $180 billion in “ill-gotten gains,” to remove Altman and OpenAI President Greg Brockman from leadership, and to…