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

BREAKING NEWSMay. 18, 2026, 5:30 PM UTCTech NewsTech NewsJury tosses Elon Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI and Sam AltmanThe jury ruled that Elon Musk had waited too long to sue. Listen to this article with a free account00:0000:00Elon Musk and Sam Altman in elevators at federal court in Oakland, Calif.Benjamin Fanjoy / Getty ImagesShareAdd NBC News to GoogleBy David IngramOAKLAND, Calif. — A jury on Monday found that tech billionaire Elon Musk waited too long to bring his lawsuit against OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, throwing out the suit that claimed Altman had unlawfully enriched himself from the organization they helped to create.Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.The jury found Altman, co-founder Greg Brockman and OpenAI not liable on all claims after a blockbuster three-week trial that has captured the attention of the tech industry and that threatened to reshape the race to develop artificial intelligence.On the same statute-of-limitations grounds, the jury also rejected Musk’s claim that Microsoft aided and abetted Altman and Brockman in allegedly breaching their duty to OpenAI. Microsoft was an early and large investor in OpenAI’s for-profit operation.The verdict was unanimous. The jury began deliberating first thing Monday morning and took less than two hours to reach a verdict.Steven Molo, a lawyer for Musk, said in court that he was preserving his right to appeal but hadn’t yet made a decision how to proceed.The question of whether Musk dragged his feet before suing was a primary topic of questions when Musk was on the witness stand for three days.The statute of limitations were strict in the case: three years for a claim that Altman and Brockman breached a duty of charitable trust that they owed to OpenAI as a nonprofit organization, and two years for a claim that they unlawfully enriched themselves from the organization.OpenAI co-founders including Musk, Altman and Brockman discussed a for-profit c...