Elon Musk responds to jury verdict in OpenAI lawsuit: ‘Dangerous precedent to set’

Elon Musk suffered a major legal blow in the Musk vs OpenAI lawsuit on Monday when a California jury unanimously rejected the billionaire tech mogul’s $150 billion claim against Sam Altman.

According to this verdict, the jury agreed to the point that the CEO of SpaceX waited too long to file a lawsuit against the artificial intelligence whom he accused of deviating from the non profit to for-profit agenda.

The jury found that Musk had reason to know he was being misled prior to 2021. Because of this, his claims are barred by the statutes of limitations.

Although, verdict proved a definitive loss for Musk, it also appears that decision was taken on procedural ground rather than on merit.

After the jury’s verdict, Elon Musk took to X and expressed his thoughts over the highly-awaiting decision, “Regarding the OpenAI case, the judge & jury never actually ruled on the merits of the case, just on a calendar technicality.”

“There is no question to anyone following the case in detail that Altman & Brockman did in fact enrich themselves by stealing from a charity. The only question is WHEN they did it!”

Talking about the future plans, Musk also wrote that he is planning to file an appeal with the Ninth Circuit in order to save the precedent. Given the nature of the lawsuit, “creating a precedent to loot charities is incredibly destructive to charitable giving in America.” Because OpenAI was founded for all humanity’s benefit.

‘A dangerous precedent’

In an interview with Forbes’ chief content officer Randall Lane at the Forbes Innovation 250 celebration dinner in Palo Alto, Elon Musk also expressed his frustration with the recent court decision regarding OpenAI lawsuit.

“I think this is a dangerous precedent to set. It means if somebody can take a nonprofit and convert it to a for-profit when it is successful, that undermines all charitable giving in America,” Musk said.

Musk co-founded OpenAI in 2025 as a non-profit and he contributed $38 million based on the assurances that the company would only serve the purpose for the benefit of humanity.

He sued the company in 2024, claiming that Sam Altman and Greg Brockman violated the charitable nature of the company and turned it into for-profit to enrich themselves.