Elon Musk loses lawsuit against OpenAI

Elon Musk has lost his lawsuit against OpenAI and its chief executive Sam Altman.

A US jury found the artificial intelligence company, which created ChatGPT, was not liable to Musk for having allegedly strayed from its original mission ‌to benefit humanity.

The jury, which deliberated for less than two hours in a federal court in Oakland, California, sided with OpenAI, saying the lawsuit by the world's richest man was not filed on time.

The trial has widely been seen as a critical ​moment for the future of OpenAI and artificial intelligence generally, both in how it should be used and who should benefit ​from it, including financially.

Following the verdict, Musk's lawyer said he reserved the right to appeal. But the judge suggested that would be difficult given Musk's timing.

US District Judge, Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, said: "There's a substantial amount of evidence to ​support the jury's finding, which is why I was prepared to dismiss on the spot."

In his 2024 lawsuit, Musk accused OpenAI, its chief executive Altman and president Greg Brockman of manipulating him into giving $38m (£28m), before going behind his back by attaching a for-profit business to its original non-profit and accepting tens of billions of dollars from Microsoft and other investors.

Musk described the conduct of the OpenAI defendants as "stealing a charity".

OpenAI was founded by Altman, Musk and several others in 2015.

But Musk left its board in 2018 and OpenAI set up a for-profit business the following year.

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The verdict followed 11 days of testimony and arguments, with Musk and Altman's credibility coming under repeated attack.

Both sides accused each other of being more interested in money than serving the public.

Musk's lawyer, Steven Molo, said in his closing statement: "Sam Altman's credibility is directly at issue. If you don't believe him, they cannot win."

Musk, who in 2022 took over Twitter, now known as X, accused OpenAI of wrongfully trying to enrich investors and insiders at the non-profit's expense and failing to prioritise AI's safety.

He also claimed Microsoft knew all along that OpenAI cared more about money than being altruistic.

This was countered by OpenAI, which claimed it was Musk who pursued financial gain and that he waited too long to claim OpenAI breached its founding agreement to build safe artificial intelligence to benefit humanity.

(c) Sky News 2026: Elon Musk loses lawsuit against OpenAI