Elon Musk has faced a legal defeat in his lawsuit against OpenAI and its leadership regarding the company’s transition from a nonprofit to a for-profit model.
The jury concluded that Musk’s claims of breach of charitable trust and unjust enrichment were filed too late, as he likely recognized the shift in the organization’s mission years before bringing the case in 2024.
While Musk argued that he only realized the full extent of the “bait and switch” during a massive Microsoft investment in 2022, the court focused on a statute of limitations technicality rather than the core merits of the dispute. (A statute of limitations is a legal time limit that dictates how long someone has to file a lawsuit after an alleged offense occurs or is discovered. In Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI, the specific time limit was three years for his breach of charitable trust claim and two years for his unjust enrichment claim. )
Evidence presented at trial suggested Musk was aware of for-profit discussions as early as 2017, leading the jury to side with the defense’s timeline. Consequently, the judge dismissed the case, though Musk has expressed his intent to appeal the verdict to a higher court.
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