Elon Musk Loses Case Against Sam Altman Over OpenAI’s Overhaul

Elon Musk arrives at the Ronald V. Dellums Federal Building for court in Oakland, California on April 30.
Photographer: Benjamin Fanjoy/Getty Images

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By Madlin Mekelburg, Isaiah Poritz (Bloomberg Law) and Rachel Metz

May 18, 2026 at 5:40 PM UTC

Updated on

May 18, 2026 at 9:23 PM UTC

A jury rejected Elon Musk’s claims that OpenAI under Sam Altman’s leadership betrayed its mission to benefit the public by morphing into a for-profit business, finding that he waited too long to sue the company.

The verdict reached Monday in federal court in Oakland, California, follows a trial over the bitter feud between the entrepreneurs who worked together to launch the startup in 2015. OpenAI has since evolved into one of the world’s most valuable and powerful artificial intelligence companies.