Elon Musk Loses OpenAI Trial, Vows Appeal After Jury Dismisses Claims Over Statute of Limitations

Verdict Reached, But Battle Not Over

A federal jury in Oakland, California sided with OpenAI on May 18, unanimously dismissing all claims in Elon Musk’s lawsuit against Sam Altman and the company he co-founded. The jury found that Musk’s claims were filed outside the three-year statute of limitations as district court judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers immediately adopted the advisory jury’s verdict.

The lawsuit, first filed in 2024, centered on Musk’s allegation that Altman had broken a foundational promise to keep OpenAI structured as a nonprofit dedicated to the public benefit. The court did not rule on whether that promise existed or was violated and the timing issue rendered the substantive claims legally moot before any evidence on the merits was weighed.

Writing on X shortly after the verdict, Musk called the outcome a “calendar technicality” and confirmed he would take the matter to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. His legal team formally reserved the right to appeal in open court.

Judge Gonzalez Rogers expressed open skepticism in response, indicating she was prepared to dismiss any such appeal given the weight of evidence behind the jury’s finding.

A Two-Year Legal Feud

The verdict is just a single chapter within a broader conflict between Musk and OpenAI that has played out across courtrooms as well as social media because shortly after Musk filed his original suit, OpenAI counter-sued him, accusing Musk of waging a bad-faith legal campaign as a competitive weapon.

Musk founded xAI in 2023, whose Grok model competes directly with OpenAI’s ChatGPT, creating a clear financial incentive behind the litigation that OpenAI’s lawyers leaned on throughout the trial.

The backdrop to the verdict is a company that has continued scaling regardless of the courtroom drama. OpenAI is approaching a $730 billion pre-funding valuation and has targeted a public market debut before the end of 2026. The company made headlines last year (alongside Robinhood) when its name surfaced in a debate over tokenized stocks and equity exposure, a sign of how deeply its footprint now extends beyond pure AI into financial markets.

Musk’s X platform remains one of the most active venues for crypto discourse, and xAI has been actively exploring integrations spanning AI and decentralized applications. In all of this, whether the Ninth Circuit takes up the case remains to be seen because if it declines, the door on Musk’s nonprofit-breach argument closes permanently (at least through the U.S. federal court system).