Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI to proceed to jury trial

A U.S. district judge has ruled that there is sufficient evidence to support Elon Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI, allowing the case to move to a jury trial tentatively scheduled for March. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers issued the ruling, stating that the decision was based on evidence suggesting OpenAI’s leaders made assurances that its original nonprofit structure would be maintained. Musk filed the lawsuit in 2024 against OpenAI and its co-founders, CEO Sam Altman and Greg Brockman, alleging that they betrayed their original contractual agreements. The ruling allows the legal challenge to proceed to a trial where a jury will evaluate these claims.

The legal battle stems from OpenAI’s transition away from its original structure. Founded in 2015 as a nonprofit research lab, OpenAI began to move away from its pure nonprofit roots in 2019. The conflict escalated after Musk made an unsolicited $97.4 billion bid to buy OpenAI in February 2025, which Altman rejected. In October 2025, OpenAI completed its formal restructuring process. As part of this restructuring, the company’s for-profit branch became a Public Benefit Corporation—which is a legal corporate structure that balances profit with public benefit—while the original nonprofit retained a 26% equity stake.

Musk, who also founded the for-profit AI company xAI and leads Tesla, a company involved in AI development, resigned from the OpenAI board in 2018 after his bid to take over as CEO was rejected. He is now seeking monetary damages, claiming he invested about $38 million in early funding based on assurances that OpenAI would remain a nonprofit. Musk is seeking damages for what he characterizes as “ill-gotten gains” by OpenAI. In response, an OpenAI spokesperson dismissed the lawsuit, describing it as “baseless and a part of his ongoing pattern of harassment.”

Why it matters

The case highlights the tension between the original nonprofit mission of AI research labs and the massive commercial pressures of the current industry, setting a precedent for how early-stage agreements are enforced in the sector.