philip lelyveld The world of entertainment technology

What the jury will actually decide in the case of Elon Musk vs. Sam Altman

While the trial exploring Elon Musk’s case against OpenAI’s other co-founders and Microsoft has covered territory ranging from the breakup of the founders in 2018 to Altman’s firing and rehiring in 2023, the jurors will be considering a set of fairly narrow questions:

• Breach of charitable trust — essentially, did OpenAI and co-founders Sam Altman and Greg Brockman violate a specific agreement with Musk to use his donations to OpenAI for a specific, charitable purpose and not general use by the non-profit?
• Unjust enrichment — did the defendants use Musk’s donations to enrich themselves through OpenAI’s for-profit arm, instead of for charitable purposes?
• Aiding and abetting breach of charitable trust — did Microsoft, through its interactions with OpenAI, know that Musk had specific conditions on its donations and did it play a significant role in causing harm to Musk?

OpenAI has also made three arguments in its defense that the jury will weigh:

• Statute of limitations — a legal deadline by which a lawsuit must be filed. Here, if OpenAI can prove that any harms to Musk happened before August 5, 2021, for the first count; August 5, 2022, for the second count; and November 14, 2021, for the third count, then his claims will be moot.
• Unreasonable delay — Musk, by filing his lawsuit in 2024, delayed his claim in a way that made his request for damages unreasonable.
• Unclean hands — a legal doctrine holding that Musk’s conduct related to his claims against OpenAI was unconscionable and renders them invalid.

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See the full story here: https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/14/what-the-jury-will-actually-decide-in-the-case-of-elon-musk-vs-sam-altman/