Musk to Appeal Federal Case Against Sam Altman and OpenAI

Elon Musk’s lawyers plan to file an appeal after a federal jury rejected the billionaire’s claims that OpenAI and its chief executive officer, Sam Altman, betrayed a mission to remain a nonprofit.A nine-person advisory jury at Oakland only deliberated for two hours before finding that Mr. Musk waited too long to file his suit. About three weeks of testimony preceded jury deliberations. The jury concluded that Mr. Musk had three years to sue but waited until after the deadline before bringing his lawsuit.A district judge agreed and ruled against Mr. Musk. “I think there is a substantial amount of evidence to support the jury’s findings,” Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers said, according to Bloomberg.Mr. Altman and OpenAI said the artificial intelligence company never promised to remain a nonprofit. Mr. Musk and Mr. Altman co-founded OpenAI in 2015 as a nonprofit research organization with the mission to “advance digital intelligence in the way that is most likely to benefit humanity as a whole, unconstrained by a need to generate financial return.”The Tesla founder left OpenAI after a falling out with the company’s board. Mr. Altman became chief executive and created a for-profit subsidiary and later announced an effort to convert all of OpenAI into a for-profit company.Mr. Musk first sued OpenAI in February 2024 but dropped the suit in June. He refiled the complaint in August 2024 with additional allegations.“Regarding the OpenAI case, the judge & jury never actually ruled on the merits of the case, just on a calendar technicality,” Mr. Musk wrote in an X post Monday. “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!”The judge appeared skeptical of the path forward for Mr. Musk but his legal team vowed to pursue the fight. “I have a one-word reaction: ‘appeal,’” one of Mr. Musk’s attorneys, Marc Toberoff, said outside the courthouse. “The Siege of Charleston, the Battle of Bunker Hill. These were major losses for Americans, but who won the war? This one is not over,” Mr. Toberoff added.The verdict clears the way for OpenAI to go public with an initial public offering. The company behind the ChatGPT AI app is one of the most valuable tech companies in the world, currently valued at $500 billion, Fast Company reported.Messrs. Altman and Musk have had an ongoing series of public spats. Early last year, Mr. Musk derided a partnership between OpenAI, Oracle, and SoftBank to build out artificial intelligence data centers and electricity generation in Texas. Mr. Musk claimed they didn’t have the money to make the project work. Mr. Altman replied that Mr. Musk was wrong and the first site was already under construction.A month later, Mr. Musk made an unsolicited $97.4 billion bid to buy OpenAI. Mr. Altman quickly responded on X, writing, “no thank you but we will buy twitter for $9.74 billion if you want,” a reference to Mr. Musk’s social media platform. Mr. Musk replied: “Swindler.”

Musk to Appeal Federal Case Against Sam Altman and OpenAI

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