Jury rules against Musk in court battle against Sam Altman, OpenAI
Elon Musk stands in an elevator to attend the hearing of his lawsuit regarding the for-profit conversion of OpenAI at the federal courthouse in Oakland, California, USA on April 30, 2026.
Manuel Orbegozo | Reuters
After less than two hours of deliberations, the jury rejected Elon Musk’s allegations against OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, ending a dramatic chapter in the bitter rivalry between two tech billionaires who were once close friends.
The court, led by U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, accepted the advisory jury’s finding that Altman and OpenAI were not liable.
Addressing the judge, Musk’s lead attorney, Steven Molo, reserved his client’s right to appeal, but Gonzales Rogers said he was prepared to dismiss the appeal “immediately.”
“There is substantial evidence to support the jury’s finding,” the judge said.
Musk sued Altman and OpenAI in 2024, alleging that they violated their commitment to keep the AI laboratory a nonprofit organization. Musk helped found OpenAI in 2015 but left the board three years later.
MicrosoftThe company, which invested in OpenAI as early as 2019, was also named as a defendant in the lawsuit, with Musk claiming the software giant aided and abetted the AI startup in an alleged breach of its philanthropic trust.
Musk’s team wants the court to force OpenAI and Microsoft to give up $134 billion in “ill-gotten gains,” remove Altman and OpenAI Chairman Greg Brockman from leadership, and unwind a 2025 restructuring that allows the company’s for-profit arm to grow. Musk said any money should be returned to the “OpenAI charity” and not to him personally.
At the heart of the lawsuit was Musk’s claim that OpenAI executives “stolen a charity” when Altman and Brockman abandoned OpenAI’s founding philanthropic mission for their own personal gain. Musk stated that he gave approximately $38 million to OpenAI with the understanding that it would develop artificial intelligence “for the benefit of humanity” and would not enrich any individual.
OpenAI lawyers argued that Musk’s donations were not restricted in any way and that restructuring the business was the only way to compete in this costly race. Google DeepMind. They also showed that Musk implemented a for-profit structure provided he retained control, even driving the company into bankruptcy at one point. Tesla’s.
In 2023, Musk founded his own rival artificial intelligence lab, xAI, which is now part of SpaceX. OpenAI’s lawyers described the lawsuit as Musk’s attempt to bend the knee after failing to gain control of his rival.
Jurors heard testimony from Altman, Brockman, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Musk over three weeks.
The decision comes at a critical time for Altman and Musk, as both billionaires are pushing their respective companies into the public markets, where they are expected to make record bids.
In late March, OpenAI raised $122 billion at a valuation of over $850 billion. The ChatGPT maker is also trying to keep up with Anthropic in the enterprise AI market as it races to improve its models and continue developing consumer services.
Meanwhile, Musk is expected to start meeting with investors very shortly before the IPO of SpaceX, which is valued at $1.25 trillion after its merger with xAI in February. SpaceX filed confidentially for an IPO in April and may make its disclosure public this week.
—CNBC’s Ashley Capoot and Kate Rooney contributed to this report.
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