OAKLAND, United States — A California jury on Monday, May 18, 2026, found that Elon Musk waited too long to bring his lawsuit against OpenAI and two of its senior executives, dealing a major setback to the billionaire entrepreneur’s challenge against the company he helped establish.
After roughly 90 minutes of deliberations, jurors concluded that Musk’s claims were barred by the statute of limitations.
Although the verdict was advisory, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers said she accepted the jury’s findings.
“The court now confirms the prior indication that it would accept the jury’s findings as its own,” Rogers said in court.
“I think that there’s a substantial amount of evidence to support the jury’s finding, which is why I was prepared to dismiss on the spot,” she added.
Musk, an early financial backer and cofounder of OpenAI, filed the lawsuit in February 2024 against the company, Chief Executive Sam Altman and President Greg Brockman.
He accused them of abandoning OpenAI’s original charitable mission by restructuring the organisation to include a for-profit arm.
During testimony earlier this month, Musk expressed regret over his early support for the company.
“I was a fool,” he told the court. “I gave them free funding to create a startup.”
Dispute Over OpenAI’s Structure
OpenAI’s legal team argued during the proceedings that the organisation’s core mission had not changed and that control of the company still rested with its nonprofit governing board.
The defence also contended that Musk had long been aware of the corporate developments at the centre of the lawsuit.
Jurors agreed, finding that Musk knew about the conduct referenced in the case as early as 2021.
William Savitt, an attorney representing OpenAI, described the lawsuit as an effort to undermine a rival artificial intelligence company.
“The finding of the jury confirms that what this lawsuit was was a hypocritical attempt to sabotage a competitor,” Savitt said after the ruling.
“The fact is that OpenAI is a not-for-profit, mission-driven organization that has been and will continue to be faithful to that mission,” he added.
Lawyers for OpenAI also argued that Musk’s financial contributions to the organisation were not conditioned on the company remaining entirely nonprofit.
They further stated that Musk himself had at times encouraged the creation of a profit-making structure to help OpenAI compete with Google.
According to the company’s legal team, Musk later sought greater control over the commercial arm and departed OpenAI after those efforts failed.
Trial Revealed Internal Communications
The case drew attention because of its potential implications for OpenAI as the company continues preparations for a possible public offering.
Musk sought sweeping remedies from the court, including repayment of more than $130 billion to OpenAI’s nonprofit arm, the removal of Altman and Brockman from leadership positions and the reversal of the company’s restructuring.
The proceedings featured testimony from several prominent figures in the technology industry, including OpenAI cofounder Ilya Sutskever and Shivon Zilis, an executive linked to several of Musk’s companies and a former OpenAI board member.
Court filings included hundreds of pages of internal communications, meeting notes and text exchanges.
Among the evidence presented were Brockman’s personal diaries and messages between Musk and Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg discussing a possible acquisition of OpenAI.
The trial also examined the role Google played during OpenAI’s early development and disclosed fundraising options the company explored to support its computing infrastructure, including cryptocurrency-related proposals.
Microsoft, which has invested heavily in OpenAI, was named as a codefendant in the case on allegations of “aiding and abetting”.
Following the ruling, a Microsoft spokesperson welcomed the outcome.
“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,” the spokesperson said.
Musk Plans Appeal
Musk criticised Judge Rogers after the decision in a post on his social media platform, X.
“She just handed out a free license to loot charities if you can keep the looting quiet for a few years!” he wrote.
Marc Toberoff, Musk’s lead attorney, told reporters after the verdict that the legal team intended to challenge the decision.
“This at its core is a travesty, and but for Musk, they get away with it and they shouldn’t,” Toberoff said.
