A jury in Oakland, California on Monday found that people associated with OpenAI were not liable for accusations filed by Elon Musk, who co-founded the start-up, as the statute of limitations had passed for the accusations.
Musk had accused OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman and president Greg Brockman of breaching a duty of charitable trust that they owed to OpenAI as a nonprofit organisation, a claim that had a statue of limitations of three years, while a claim that the two unlawfully enriched themselves from the organisation had a statute of limitations of two years.
The events described by Musk took place beginning in 2018, when he left the board of OpenAI.
Charitable contributions
Musk said he waited to sue because he believed assurances from Altman over several years, and finally decided to take legal action in 2023 when Microsoft invested $10 billion (£7.5bn) in the company’s for-profit arm in exchange for intellectual property rights and a share of future profits.
