Federal jury sides with OpenAI in feud with Elon Musk

Elon Musk arrives at the U.S. District Court in Oakland, Calif., Tuesday, April 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)

2026-05-18T17:46:27Z

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — A federal jury has sided with OpenAI and its top executives in a feud with Elon Musk, who accused them of betraying a shared vision for it to guide artificial intelligence’s development as a nonprofit dedicated to humanity’s benefit.

The nine-person jury unanimously found that Musk waited too long to file his lawsuit and missed the deadline for the statute of limitations.

Musk, the world’s richest man, was a co-founder of OpenAI, the company that launched in 2015 and went on to create ChatGPT. After investing $38 million in its first years, Musk accused OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and his top deputy of shifting into a moneymaking mode behind his back.

The jury served in an advisory role, but Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers accepted the verdict Monday as the court’s own and dismissed Musk’s claims.

The trial that began April 27 in Oakland, California shed light on the bitter falling-out between the two Silicon Valley titans and the beginnings of OpenAI, now a company valued at $852 billion and moving toward potentially one of the largest initial public offerings in history.

BARBARA ORTUTAY Ortutay writes about social media and the internet for The Associated Press. mailto

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