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Judge Clears Way for Jury Trial in Musk’s Lawsuit Against OpenAI

By  |  January 8, 2026

A U.S. judge has allowed billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk to take his lawsuit against OpenAI to a jury, advancing a high-profile legal fight over the artificial intelligence company’s shift from a nonprofit to a for-profit structure, according to Reuters.

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    At a hearing on Wednesday in Oakland, California, U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers said there was sufficient evidence to suggest that OpenAI’s leadership may have made commitments to preserve its original nonprofit mission. Per Reuters, the judge concluded that key factual disputes should be decided by a jury rather than resolved by the court at this stage. The trial is scheduled for March, and Gonzalez Rogers said she would later issue a written order addressing OpenAI’s request to dismiss the case.

    Musk, who helped found OpenAI in 2015 before leaving the organization in 2018, alleges that the company abandoned its founding purpose of developing artificial intelligence for the public good. According to Reuters, Musk argues that OpenAI’s restructuring and major commercial partnerships violated assurances he relied on when he contributed funding and support in its early years.

    The lawsuit comes as competition intensifies in the rapidly growing market for generative artificial intelligence. Musk now leads xAI, whose chatbot Grok competes directly with products developed by OpenAI and other technology firms, Reuters reported.

    Musk is seeking unspecified monetary damages, claiming OpenAI profited improperly from what he describes as “ill-gotten gains,” according to Reuters. He contends that he provided roughly $38 million—about 60% of OpenAI’s initial funding—along with strategic guidance and credibility, based on representations that the organization would remain a nonprofit dedicated to public benefit.

    Read more: Apple, OpenAI Push to Dismiss Musk’s Antitrust Lawsuit

    OpenAI has rejected Musk’s claims. In a statement issued after the hearing, the company said, “Mr Musk’s lawsuit continues to be baseless and a part of his ongoing pattern of harassment, and we look forward to demonstrating this at trial,” per Reuters. Musk’s company, xAI, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

    Steven Molo, a lead trial attorney representing Musk and xAI, said after the hearing that “we look forward to presenting all the evidence of the defendants’ wrongdoing to the jury,” according to Reuters.

    The lawsuit accuses OpenAI co-founders Sam Altman and Greg Brockman of orchestrating a shift to a for-profit model to enrich themselves, pointing to multibillion-dollar deals with Microsoft and a recent corporate restructuring, Reuters reported. OpenAI, Altman and Brockman have denied the allegations, characterizing Musk as a commercial rival attempting to hinder a competitor.

    Microsoft, also named as a defendant, urged the court to dismiss the claims against it. A lawyer for the company said there was no evidence that Microsoft “aided and abetted” OpenAI, according to Reuters. Microsoft did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

    During the hearing, OpenAI’s lawyers argued that Musk failed to present enough factual support for claims such as fraud and breach of contract and that the lawsuit was filed too late. Gonzalez Rogers said the jury would be asked to consider whether the claims fall outside the applicable statute of limitations, per Reuters.

    Source: Reuters