OAKLAND: A federal jury ruled Monday that Elon Musk waited too long to sue OpenAI and its co-founders, delivering a decisive victory to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and ending one of Silicon Valley&#39;s most closely watched courtroom battles. The jury in Oakland federal court found that Musk&#39;s claims against Altman, OpenAI President Greg Brockman, The OpenAI Foundation and Microsoft were barred by relevant statutes of limitations, rejecting the billionaire&#39;s core arguments. Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, who had asked the jury to advise her on the matter, accepted and confirmed the verdict. The three-week trial saw a parade of tech titans take the stand, with Musk arguing that OpenAI&#39;s pivot to a profit-driven business betrayed its original nonprofit mandate. The outcome spares OpenAI from a potentially existential legal threat. Had Musk prevailed, he was seeking to force the company to revert to its nonprofit structure -- a move that would have derailed its planned IPO and unwound ties to major investors including Microsoft, Amazon and SoftBank, who have poured billions into the company amid the global AI race. Musk, the world&#39;s richest person, had sued OpenAI over its transformation from a scrappy nonprofit into the $850 billion juggernaut behind ChatGPT, claiming Altman and Brockman improperly used a $38 million donation he had intended to sustain OpenAI as a research lab devoted to developing AI for the benefit of humanity. The jury first had to resolve a threshold issue: whether Musk, who filed suit in 2024 -- four years after his last contribution -- had done so within the statutory time limit. It found he had not, ending the case before jurors could weigh the underlying merits. The judge had ruled ahead of deliberations that the jury&#39;s verdict on the statute of limitations would be advisory, but said she would likely follow its recommendation. Had the case proceeded, jurors -- and ultimately the judge -- would have determined whether OpenAI&#39;s co-founders misappropriated Musk&#39;s donations and broke promises to him in order to pursue a commercial path and enrich themselves. Dueling billionairesClosing arguments had centered heavily on Altman&#39;s integrity and behind-the-scenes maneuvering that rankled colleagues. Musk attorney Steven Molo attacked Altman&#39;s credibility, invoking OpenAI&#39;s founding vision. &quot;A non-profit devoted to the safe development of artificial intelligence, open-sourced as practical, for the benefit of humanity. You know, we&#39;re supposed to buy that,&quot; Molo said Thursday. OpenAI attorney Sarah Eddy countered with an attack on Musk himself, pointing to testimony from Shivon Zilis -- a business associate of Musk with whom he has four children -- who had served as an intermediary between the tech executives. &quot;Even the people who work for him, even the mother of his children, can&#39;t back his story,&quot; Eddy said. As Judge Gonzalez Rogers noted during the trial, the case had in many ways come down to a simple question: who to believe among the bickering billionaires. Musk left OpenAI in 2018 and has since pursued AI projects through his rocket company SpaceX, while his AI startup xAI has struggled to gain traction against OpenAI and Anthropic, another prominent California-based company. Altman, who was fired unexpectedly by OpenAI&#39;s board in November 2023 for a lack of candor before being reinstated under pressure from employees, emerged from the trial with allegations of manipulation and a toxic work culture largely unresolved by the verdict. Microsoft, OpenAI&#39;s largest private backer with $13 billion committed, was also spared. Musk&#39;s accusation that the Windows-making giant was liable for aiding and abetting the alleged breach of charitable trust fell away once the underlying case was ruled invalid.

Business

US jury ruled Elon Musk sued OpenAI too late, ending his challenge against Sam Altman, Microsoft and OpenAI’s for-profit shift, preserving the company’s structure, investor ties and planned public offering.

Musk loses blockbuster OpenAI suit as jury says too late

OAKLAND: Elon Musk was obsessed with trying to control OpenAI, the artificial intelligence company&#39;s CEO Sam Altman said Tuesday at a blockbuster trial pitting some of the world&#39;s wealthiest tech titans against each other. Altman is the latest in a parade of Silicon Valley megastars to take the stand in the case brought by Musk over OpenAI&#39;s pivot away from scrappy non-profit into the $850 billion juggernaut behind ChatGPT. Musk -- the richest person on the planet -- claims Altman and co-founder Greg Brockman improperly used a $38 million injection he had hoped would sustain OpenAI as a research lab, developing the technology for the good of humanity. &quot;It does not fit with my conception of the words &#39;stealing a charity&#39; to look at what has actually happened here,&quot; Altman told the court in Oakland, California. OpenAI was founded as a non-profit in 2015, but established a for-profit subsidiary in 2019 as the AI race heated up. Altman and others insist this was necessary to raise the vast sums of money from investors, including Microsoft, required to compete in a costly and difficult field. Musk&#39;s legal case demands that OpenAI revert to non-profit status, a move that would impact its position in the global artificial intelligence race against Anthropic, Google and China&#39;s Deepseek. OpenAI counters that Musk -- who is now also an AI competitor with his xAI -- is motivated by petty revenge, having failed to seize majority control of the commercial entity. The court has heard how, in 2017, the company&#39;s co-founders discussed the creation of the subsidiary with Musk. Altman said Tuesday that the Tesla boss demanded a huge controlling stake. &quot;An early number that Mr Musk threw out was that he should have 90% of the equity to start,&quot; he told the jury. &quot;It then softened, but it always was a majority.&quot; &quot;The fact that Mr Musk was unwilling to commit in writing to something contractual where he would not have long-term control made me very uncomfortable,&quot; said Altman. He noted OpenAI had been founded with the belief that no one person should control artificial general intelligence (AGI), the hypothetical level at which AI is smarter than humans. When Altman and Brockman thwarted Musk&#39;s attempts to dominate the company, the mercurial businessman walked away entirely, telling them the venture would fail without him. &quot;The thing that burned into my memory is when he told us we had a zero percent -- not one percent -- chance of success,&quot; Altman told the hearing. &#39;I&#39;m a truthful person&#39; Musk&#39;s lawyers hit back, sparring with Altman over claims he is deceitful. &quot;Are you completely trustworthy?&quot; Attorney Steven Molo asked. &quot;Do you always tell the truth?&quot; &quot;I believe I&#39;m a truthful person,&quot; a tense Altman replied. &quot;It wasn&#39;t my question, sir,&quot; snapped Molo. Altman was abruptly ousted as head of OpenAI in Nov. 2023, accused of mendacity by his own board of directors. He was reinstated five days later after a company revolt, but has struggled to shrug off a reputation for dishonesty in Silicon Valley. Musk&#39;s case has highlighted the mind-boggling sums of cash washing around AI companies as they forge ahead with a technology that is changing the way we live and work. That includes the $30 billion stake that Altman&#39;s co-founder Greg Brockman was revealed to have in the company. On Monday, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella testified that he was &quot;very proud&quot; of his firm&#39;s canny investment in the commercial venture, which has seen an initial $13 billion become worth more than ten times that amount in just a few years. Altman&#39;s testimony is expected to continue into Wednesday. An advisory jury is expected to reach a verdict on any actual wrongdoing by the week of May 18. Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers will then make the final ruling on both liability and remedies after hearing the jury&#39;s opinion. She has indicated she will likely follow their advice.

Artificial Intelligence

Musk -- the richest person on the planet -- claims Altman and co-founder Greg Brockman improperly used a $38 million injection he had hoped would sustain OpenAI as a research lab, developing the technology for the good of humanity.

Musk 'wanted 90%' of OpenAI, Altman tells tech titan trial

NEW DELHI: Sam Altman, head of ChatGPT maker OpenAI, told a global artificial intelligence conference on Thursday that the world &quot;urgently&quot; needs to regulate the fast-evolving technology. An organization could be set up to coordinate these efforts, similar to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), he said. Altman is one of a host of top tech CEOs in New Delhi for the AI Impact Summit, the fourth annual global meeting on how to handle advanced computing power. &quot;For an obvious example, there&#39;ll be extremely capable biomodels available open-source that could help people create new pathogens, he said on stage. &quot;We need a society-wide approach about how we&#39;re going to defend against this.&quot; Frenzied demand for generative AI has turbocharged profits for many companies while fuelling anxiety about the risks to individuals and the planet. &quot;Democratisation of AI is the best way to ensure humanity flourishes,&quot; Altman said, adding that &quot;centralisation of this technology in one company or country could lead to ruin&quot;. &quot;This is not to suggest that we won&#39;t need any regulation or safeguards,&quot; he said. &quot;We obviously do, urgently, like we have for other powerful technologies.&quot; Many researchers and campaigners say stronger action is needed to combat emerging issues, ranging from job disruption to sexualised deepfakes and AI-enabled online scams. &quot;We expect the world may need something like the IAEA for international coordination of AI,&quot; with the ability to &quot;rapidly respond to changing circumstances&quot;, Altman said. &quot;The next few years will test global society as this technology continues to improve at a rapid pace. We can choose to either empower people or concentrate power,&quot; he added. &quot;Technology always disrupts jobs; we always find new and better things to do.&quot;

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman attends the AI Impact Summit in New Delhi on February 19, 2026. (Photo by Ludovic MARIN / AFP)

Sam Altman urges global coordination and safeguards for advanced AI, warning of biosecurity risks, power concentration, and rapid societal disruption.

Articles tagged with "Sam Altman"

Musk loses blockbuster OpenAI suit as jury says too late

Musk 'wanted 90%' of OpenAI, Altman tells tech titan trial

OpenAI's Altman says world 'urgently' needs AI regulation