BREAKING: After just two hours of deliberation following three weeks of testimony and legal arguments, the nine-member jury and Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers rejected Elon Musk's claims that OpenAI, Sam Altman, and Greg Brockman violated a charitable trust and unjustly enriched themselves by converting the lab from a charity into a largely for-profit company, ruling that the statute of limitations had expired. The jury and judge agreed with OpenAI's lawyers that Musk already knew (or could have found out) about the actions he claims were unjust by the time he posted on X in 2020 that “OpenAI is essentially captured by Microsoft.” Musk's lawyer Steven Molo said his team intends to appeal, arguing that the jury didn't decide whether a breach actually occurred and that the appeals court can decide whether the jury received proper instructions about the statute of limitations. The ruling reduces a significant uncertainty that has clouded OpenAI's future as the company prepares for an IPO that could come as soon as this year, with Musk's separate antitrust claims against OpenAI and Microsoft (plus OpenAI's counterclaims against Musk) still pending in a later trial.
