Jury tosses Elon Musk's lawsuit against OpenAI and Sam Altman

[ancianita]

2. Latest update from the NYT:

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2026/05/18/technology/openai-trial-verdict-altman-musk

... But the nine-person jury in Oakland, Calif., didn’t rule on the merits of the argument.
Instead, it found that Mr. Musk did not bring his lawsuit until after the three-year statute of limitations expired, nullifying his claim. Mr. Musk filed his suit against the $730 billion artificial intelligence start-up in the summer of 2024, but the jury found that he was aware of the behavior discussed in his complaint against OpenAI as far back as 2021.

Mr. Altman is now free to solidify his control of OpenAI, which appears headed toward one of the largest initial public offerings in history. The company also will be free to pursue a data center expansion plan that could cost hundreds of billions of dollars.

Mr. Altman, Mr. Brockman and Mr. Musk, all of whom attended portions of the proceedings, were not in the courtroom for the verdict.

The jury’s decision means that Microsoft, OpenAI’s chief partner and another defendant in the case, is also not liable for Mr. Musk claims. His suit accused Microsoft of aiding and abetting OpenAI in breaching its founding agreement.

Musk response: Marc Toberoff, one of Mr. Musk’s lawyers, gave a one-word comment on the decision: “Appeal.”

Major stakes: The trial’s outcome had the potential to upend the A.I. landscape. A win for Mr. Musk, who has his own for-profit lab, xAI, would have been a win for OpenAI’s competitors, including industry giants like Google and young companies like Anthropic, as well as international competitors such as China’s DeepSeek.