Elon Musk’s Lawsuit Against OpenAI Set for Jury Trial in March

Elon Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI will proceed to a jury trial after a U.S. judge ruled that there is sufficient evidence to support Musk’s claims.

Musk filed the lawsuit in 2024, naming OpenAI and its co-founders Sam Altman and Greg Brockman as defendants. He alleges that OpenAI abandoned its founding nonprofit mission to develop artificial intelligence for the benefit of humanity and instead prioritised profit, violating early contractual commitments.

Musk was an early investor and co-founder of OpenAI, but stepped down from its board in 2018 after the co-founders declined his proposal to serve as CEO, appointing Altman instead. At the time, Musk cited potential conflicts of interest with Tesla’s autonomous driving efforts. Since then, he has been an outspoken critic of OpenAI’s structural and strategic direction.

After leaving OpenAI, Musk founded his own for-profit AI company, xAI, and repeatedly criticised OpenAI’s transition away from its nonprofit roots. In February 2025, he made an unsolicited $97.4 billion acquisition offer for OpenAI, which Altman rejected.

OpenAI was founded in 2015 as a nonprofit research organisation. In 2019, it created a for-profit subsidiary with a capped-profit model that limited investor returns, a move the company said was necessary to raise capital and compete for top talent. Despite Musk’s legal challenge, OpenAI completed a significant restructuring in October 2025, converting its for-profit arm into a Public Benefit Corporation, while the original nonprofit retained a 26% ownership stake.

Musk is now seeking financial damages, claiming he contributed roughly $38 million in early funding, along with strategic guidance and credibility, based on assurances that OpenAI would remain a nonprofit organisation.

An OpenAI spokesperson described the lawsuit as “baseless” and characterised it as part of what the company called Musk’s ongoing pattern of harassment.

U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers said her ruling was based on evidence indicating that OpenAI’s leadership may have made commitments to preserve the organisation’s nonprofit structure, as Musk alleges. A jury trial has been tentatively scheduled for March.

This article has been updated to include a comment from OpenAI.