Tesla CEO Elon Musk has vowed to appeal the verdict in the OpenAI trial after a federal jury on Monday ruled that the billionaire waited too long to file his lawsuit against Sam Altman’s company and its
co-founders.
Siding with OpenAI, the California jury dismissed all claims in Elon Musk’s 2024 lawsuit against Sam Altman, in which the former alleged that Altman had broken a foundational promise to keep OpenAI structured as a nonprofit dedicated to the public benefit.
Jurors found that Musk’s claims against Altman, OpenAI President Greg Brockman, The OpenAI Foundation and Microsoft were filed outside the three-year statute of limitations — legal deadlines that determine how long a person has to bring a lawsuit. Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, who had sought the jury’s recommendation on the issue, accepted and confirmed the verdict.
Elon Musk Vows To Appeal
Writing on X, Musk said the judge and the jury ruled on the merits of the case but on a “calendar technicality.”
“There is no question to anyone following the case in detail that Altman & Brockman did in fact enrich themselves by stealing a charity. The only question is WHEN they did it!” he said.
Regarding the OpenAI case, the judge & jury never actually ruled on the merits of the case, just on a calendar technicality.
There is no question to anyone following the case in detail that Altman & Brockman did in fact enrich themselves by stealing a charity. The only question…
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 18, 2026
The SpaceX CEO also confirmed that he would file an appeal against the verdict, saying that “creating a precedent to loot charities is incredibly destructive to charitable giving in America.”
‘War Is Not Over’
Musk’s lawyer, Marc Toberoff, also gave a one-word comment to reporters in the courtroom following the verdict: “Appeal”.
While speaking about Musk’s intent to appeal, Toberoff invoked battles from America’s history, saying there “were major losses for Americans, but who won the war? And this one is not over.”
The ruling effectively ends one of Silicon Valley’s most closely watched courtroom disputes over the future and governance of AI.
Musk claimed that a $38 million contribution he made to OpenAI was intended to support nonprofit AI research and alleged the company’s leadership later used the organisation’s transformation to enrich themselves commercially.
The case drew significant attention due to the long-running tensions between Musk and OpenAI leadership. Musk co-founded OpenAI but left the company in 2018, later launching his own AI venture, xAI, which competes with OpenAI and other firms including Anthropic.
