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Musk v. Altman

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Musk v. Altman
CourtNorthern District of California
StartedAugust 5, 2024; 2 years ago (2024-08-05)
Docket nos.4:24-cv-04722[1]
Case history
Prior actionLawsuit in San Francisco Superior Court (filed February 2024)[2][3]
Argumentcand.uscourts.gov/news/2026/05/01/musk-v-altman-trial-listen-live
Court membership
Judge sittingYvonne Gonzalez Rogers
Keywords
AI safety
Area of law
Contract[4]

Musk v. Altman was a February 2024 lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California in which Elon Musk accused OpenAI and its executives, including CEO Sam Altman, of violating the company's founding agreement by prioritizing profits over AI safety.

On May 18, 2026, the jury decided in favor of OpenAI and its executives, finding that Musk's claims were barred by the statute of limitations.[5]

Background

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Musk and Altman are two of the eleven co-founders of OpenAI, which was founded in 2015.[6]

In early 2018, Musk proposed taking direct control of OpenAI, either through a majority stake in a for-profit subsidiary or by folding the organization into Tesla. The other co-founders, including Sam Altman, Greg Brockman, and Ilya Sutskever, rejected the proposal.[7] Musk left the OpenAI board in February 2018, publicly citing a potential conflict of interest with Tesla's growing artificial intelligence work, although later reporting indicated the underlying dispute concerned control of the organization.[8]

Timeline

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Leadup (2024–2026)

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The lawsuit was originally filed on February 29, 2024.[9][10][11][12]

In November 2024, Musk filed a motion for preliminary injunction to block OpenAI from changing from a nonprofit to a for-profit. He believes the conversion violates the terms of his contributions, which total $44 million, to OpenAI from 2016 to 2020.[13] In February 2025, United States District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers said that Musk's claim of irreparable harm was a stretch.[14]

In April 2025, twelve former employees of OpenAI stated in an amicus brief that OpenAI had abandoned its nonprofit roots and that Altman "was a person of low integrity who had directly lied to employees about the extent of his knowledge and involvement in OpenAI’s practices of forcing departing employees to sign lifetime non-disparagement agreements." The motion was filed by Harvard law professor Lawrence Lessig.[15]

In April 2025, OpenAI countersued Musk, claiming that his actions were deliberate tactics to slow OpenAI in order to benefit his own interests.[16] That month, the California attorney general declined to join Musk's lawsuit.[17]

On May 1, 2025, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers trimmed the lawsuit, excluding claims of false advertising and breach of fiduciary duty, but allowed claims of fraud and unjust enrichment to proceed.[18]

On May 5, 2025, OpenAI announced that it was no longer planning to restructure into a for-profit company separate from its nonprofit board. Later that day, Musk's lawyer Marc Toberoff, announced that the lawsuit against OpenAI would continue.[19] In October 2025, OpenAI formed a for-profit company – OpenAI Group PBC – with the original non-profit receiving 26 percent ownership in the new entity and Microsoft receiving a 27 percent stake.[20]

As part of the case files disclosed by Musk's lawyers in federal court in November 2025, Altman was shown to have reached out to Shivon Zilis on February 9, 2023, asking her advice about whether to publicly praise Musk on X, which he later did.[21]

In April 2026, Musk amended the lawsuit asking that any monetary damages he might be awarded be given to OpenAI's charity and that Altman be removed from OpenAI's board.[22]

In addition to Altman, various other OpenAI executives, including OpenAI president Greg Brockman, were sued by Musk in the lawsuit as well.[23][24]

Trial

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Jury selection for the case began on April 27, 2026.[23][24]

On April 28, 2026, Elon Musk began his testimony against Altman and OpenAI, lasting until April 30;[25][26] he was also questioned by both OpenAI's attorney William Savitt[27] and by Musk's own lawyer Steven Molo.[28] The next witness on Musk's side, after Musk himself finished testifying, was Jared Birchall.[27][29] Molo also asked Rogers what another key witness, Stuart J. Russell, can discuss on the stand; Rogers replied that existential risk is outside the scope of the trial.[29]

Shivon Zilis was another witness on the stand.[30]

On May 18, 2026, the jury decided in favor of Altman and OpenAI, finding that Musk's claims were barred by the statute of limitations.[5]

See also

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References

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  1. ↑ "Elon Musk, et al. v. Samuel Altman, et al". Federal Trade Commission.
  2. ↑ Cheung, Candace (February 29, 2024). "Elon Musk sues OpenAI over AI threat". Courthouse News Service.
  3. ↑ Nidumolu, Jahnavi; Soni, Aditya; Dang, Sheila (March 1, 2024). "Elon Musk sues OpenAI for abandoning original mission for profit". Reuters.
  4. ↑ Goldman, David; Fung, Brian (March 1, 2024). "Elon Musk sues OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman for breach of contract | CNN Business". CNN.
  5. 1 2 "Jury Sides With OpenAI, Sam Altman in Case Brought by Elon Musk".
  6. ↑ Mann, Jyoti (October 3, 2024). "Here's where OpenAI's 11 cofounders are now". Business Insider. Archived from the original on December 30, 2025. Retrieved June 27, 2026.
  7. ↑ Loizos, Connie (May 6, 2026). "How Elon Musk left OpenAI, according to Greg Brockman". TechCrunch. Retrieved May 13, 2026.
  8. ↑ Smith, Reed (March 24, 2023). "The secret history of Elon Musk, Sam Altman, and OpenAI". Semafor. Retrieved May 13, 2026.
  9. ↑ Vipers, Gareth; Schechner, Sam; Seetharaman, Deepa (March 1, 2024). "Elon Musk Sues OpenAI, Sam Altman, Saying They Abandoned Founding Mission". The Wall Street Journal.
  10. ↑ Satariano, Adam; Metz, Cade; Mickle, Tripp (March 1, 2024). "Elon Musk Sues OpenAI and Sam Altman for Violating the Company's Principles". The New York Times.
  11. ↑ Knight, Will (March 1, 2024). "The Wild Claim at the Heart of Elon Musk's OpenAI Lawsuit". Wired.
  12. ↑ "Elon Musk Is Right About OpenAI's Hypocrisy". Bloomberg. March 1, 2024.
  13. ↑ Brodkin, Jon (December 2, 2024). "Elon Musk asks court to block OpenAI conversion from nonprofit to for-profit". Ars Technica.
  14. ↑ Yang, Angela; Cheung, Brian (February 5, 2025). "OpenAI feud between Elon Musk, Sam Altman faces federal judge". NBC News.
  15. ↑ Goldman, Sharon (April 11, 2025). "12 former OpenAI employees asked to be heard in Elon Musk's lawsuit against the company; one calls Sam Altman a 'person of low integrity'". Fortune.
  16. ↑ "OpenAI sues Elon Musk claiming 'bad-faith tactics'". BBC. April 11, 2025.
  17. ↑ Tong, Anna; Tong, Anna (April 17, 2025). "California attorney general declines to join Musk's lawsuit against OpenAI". Reuters.
  18. ↑ Nayak, Malathi (May 2, 2025). "OpenAI Can't Fend Off Musk's Fraud Claims in Restructuring Suit". Bloomberg.
  19. ↑ "Elon Musk to go ahead with lawsuit against OpenAI despite nonprofit control statement, lawyer says". Reuters. May 6, 2025.
  20. ↑ Metz, Cade (October 28, 2025). "OpenAI Restructures to Become a More Traditional For-Profit Company". The New York Times. Retrieved April 28, 2026.
  21. ↑ Spirlet, Thibault (November 10, 2025). "One text shows how Sam Altman asked Shivon Zilis, the Elon Musk whisperer, for advice on how to make nice". Business Insider.
  22. ↑ Toonkel, Jessica (April 7, 2026). "Elon Musk Asks for OpenAI's Nonprofit to Get Any Damages From His Lawsuit". The Wall Street Journal.
  23. 1 2 Capoot, Ashley (April 27, 2026). "Jury selection kicks off in Musk v. Altman trial". CNBC.
  24. 1 2 Ruwitch, John (April 27, 2026). "Musk vs. Altman: Tech CEOs head to court over the fate of OpenAI". NPR. Retrieved April 27, 2026.
  25. ↑ Ruwitch, John (April 28, 2026). "Elon Musk testifies against OpenAI, seeking Sam Altman's ouster". NPR. Retrieved April 30, 2026.
  26. ↑ Au-Yeung, Angel (April 30, 2026). "Elon Musk Takes Stand for a Third Day Against Sam Altman". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved April 30, 2026.
  27. 1 2 Capoot, Lora Kolodny,Ashley (April 30, 2026). "OpenAI trial live updates: Head of Musk's family office questioned about donation restrictions". CNBC. Retrieved April 30, 2026.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  28. ↑ Kerr, Dara; Robins-Early, Nick (April 30, 2026). "Judge cuts off Musk's AI doomsday talk as his testimony ends in Open AI case". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved April 30, 2026.
  29. 1 2 Capoot, Ashley; Kolodny, Lora (April 30, 2026). "OpenAI trial live updates: Head of Musk's family office questioned about donation restrictions". CNBC. Retrieved April 30, 2026.
  30. ↑ Dwoskin, Elizabeth; Vynck, Gerrit De; Siddiqui, Faiz (May 8, 2026). "She had four kids with Elon Musk. Now she's central to his courtroom fight". The Washington Post. Retrieved May 8, 2026.
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