Elon Musk loses battle to Sam Altman in OpenAI control battle

2026-05-18 21:04:21Kosova&Bota SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX
Elon Musk and Sam Altman

Elon Musk has lost his legal battle against Sam Altman over the future and transformation of OpenAI. The jury dismissed Musk's lawsuit, arguing that the legal action was filed too late and that the charges were past the statute of limitations.

Musk had accused Altman of betraying OpenAI's original mission, which he said was to develop artificial intelligence for the benefit of humanity, not for commercial gain. Altman, on the other hand, claimed that Musk only left the project after failing to gain control of the company.

After 11 days of testimony and courtroom confrontations, the final verdict came.

The nine-member jury acquitted Altman and OpenAI, while US federal judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers upheld the verdict, leaving the company's current structure unchanged.

The lawsuit dates back to 2024, when Musk, one of the co-founders of OpenAI in 2015, sued the company's executives, claiming they had broken a promise to keep the artificial intelligence lab a nonprofit. Musk stepped down from OpenAI's board of directors in 2018.

Microsoft was also involved in the process, as Musk accused the tech giant of helping OpenAI transform towards a profitable model. Microsoft had invested in OpenAI since 2019.

Musk's legal team is seeking to have OpenAI and Microsoft return up to $134 billion in "illegitimate profits," as well as the removal of Sam Altman and OpenAI president Greg Brockman from the company's board. Musk is also seeking to overturn the 2025 restructuring that paved the way for the expansion of OpenAI's for-profit division.

During his testimony, Musk stated that he had donated about $38 million to OpenAI with the belief that the technology would be developed "for the benefit of humanity," and not to enrich certain individuals.

Meanwhile, OpenAI's lawyers argued that Musk's donations had no legal conditions and that the company's restructuring was necessary to compete in the expensive artificial intelligence race against Google DeepMind.


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