The jury’s speedy decision to reject Elon Musk’s lawsuit against the other founders of OpenAI and Microsoft confirmed a prevailing sentiment in the courtroom: Musk’s case was legally weak, hampered significantly by his delay in filing. During closing arguments, OpenAI’s attorneys meticulously detailed how the law favored their clients, while Musk's team focused on attacking Sam Altman’s credibility.
Following the verdict, Musk expressed disbelief. In a later-deleted post, he criticized Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers as a “terrible activist Oakland judge” and announced plans to appeal, asserting that Altman and Brockman had enriched themselves by “stealing a charity.” However, the trial revealed that Altman and Brockman were not the only beneficiaries of OpenAI’s resources; Musk’s own actions came under scrutiny.
A pivotal moment in the testimony involved Greg Brockman describing a 2017 incident where Musk requested a team of OpenAI’s top researchers—including Ilya Sutskever, Andrej Karpathy, and Scott Gray—to assist Tesla’s Autopilot team at its headquarters for several weeks. Brockman stated it was an offer they felt they couldn't refuse, describing the Tesla team at the time as “demoralized.”
The OpenAI scientists provided critical technical insights, such as Sutskever’s advice on collecting 10,000 images of edge-case corners to fix persistent software bugs. Musk even went as far as asking Brockman to recommend Tesla employees for termination, a request Brockman declined. Crucially, evidence suggested that Tesla did not reimburse OpenAI for the labor of these high-level scientists.
The core of Musk’s lawsuit is the allegation of a “breach of charitable trust,” arguing his donations were diverted from their original intent to secure the benefits of AGI. Yet, the testimony paints a picture of Musk himself leveraging those same non-profit resources for his for-profit venture. Legal experts, such as Columbia Law School professor Dorothy Lund, noted the irony of Musk suing for breach of trust while he appeared to have utilized non-profit talent for personal corporate gain.
