Elon Musk has reportedly lost his lawsuit against OpenAI and Sam Altman, with media reports pointing to the tech giant’s claims towards other behemoths like Microsoft’s involvement in the firm getting rejected.
According to media reports Monday, a federal jury tossed out Elon Musk’s case against OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman that alleged that the AI giant had deviated from its original mission of being a non-profit organization.
The jury was of the opinion that Musk waited too long to bring his lawsuit against OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and others. The federal court ended up throwing out the suit that claimed Altman had unlawfully enriched himself from the organization Musk and Altman co-founded.
Musk in his defence said that he waited to sue because he believed reassurances from Altman over the years. He claimed that he was finally fed up with Microsoft spending $10 billion to invest in the for-profit entity of OpenAI for IP rights and a share of future profits in 2023.
Following up with a reply, Musk took to X, saying that “the judge & jury never actually ruled on the merits of the case, just on a calendar technicality.” He added that the tech giant “will be filing an appeal with the Ninth Circuit, because creating a precedent to loot charities is incredibly destructive to charitable giving in America.”
The verdict implies that the jury determined that Sam Altman, Greg Brockman, co-founder of the firm, and OpenAI were not liable for the claims brought forth in the lawsuit.
The lawsuit emerged after a highly publicized three-week trial that garnered considerable attention throughout the tech world since it could greatly affect the rapidly unfolding competition in the field of artificial intelligence.
Microsoft also acquitted of all charges
The jury also rejected Elon Musk’s argument that Microsoft played a role in helping Sam Altman and Greg Brockman allegedly breaching their duties to OpenAI. Microsoft was among the first big financial supporters of the profit-making enterprise run by OpenAI.
The verdict was delivered as an unambiguous decision from the jury. The jurors deliberated on Monday morning and took less than two hours to reach a verdict. U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers said that she adopted the jurors’ verdict.
At the same time, the lawsuit has also drawn attention to xAI and Elon Musk’s broader activities in artificial intelligence. During his testimony, Musk was questioned about xAI, the AI company he founded after stepping down from the board of OpenAI in 2018.
In January this year, Musk reportedly expanded xAI and merged it with his space and technology ventures, including SpaceX, creating a combined structure that is estimated to be worth around $250 billion.
Musk was also subjected to scrutiny over potential conflict of interest with OpenAI since he has now expanded himself in the artificial intelligence sector.
Altman alleges Musk “damaged OpenAI culture”
During his court testimony, Sam Altman had previously made big claims that Elon Musk caused “huge damage” to the culture at OpenAI during its early years.
As The Coin Headlines reported earlier, Altman claimed that Musk pushed for a far more aggressive management style inside OpenAI, especially within the company’s research teams.
Altman’s appearance in court came just a day after Satya Nadella testified in the same case, making him the fifth billionaire to take the stand during the high-profile legal battle.
Altman told the court that Musk wanted OpenAI President Greg Brockman and former chief scientist Ilya Sutskever to rank researchers based strictly on performance and quickly remove employees who were not delivering results fast enough.
Altman described Musk’s approach as wanting to “take a chainsaw through” parts of the workforce.
The trial also stood out for a brutal reality of displaying just how much wealth was concentrated among the people involved, with Sam Altman, Greg Brockman and Elon Musk all being billionaires. In total, six tech billionaires ended up giving testimony, which made the case feel unusually high-profile and closely watched.