Legal analysis after Musk loses lawsuit against OpenAI over statute of limitations

Ajouté : 2026-05-22

[00:00:00]A California jury has unanimously dismissed Elon Musk's lawsuit against OpenAI and its top executives. The nine-person jury serving in an advisory role found the world's richest man missed the three-year statute of limitations to file his suit. The judge presiding over the case accepted the jury's verdict. Musk accused OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and his president Greg Brockman of breaking their promise to keep the company a non-profit and unlawfully enrich themselves in the process. For more on this, let's bring in CBS News legal contributor and professor at Loyola Law School Jessica Levinson. So, let's talk about this and your reaction. Were you surprised that it came to this?

[00:00:39]I wish I could say that I could I wasn't because that would make me sound really smart, but I think everybody in the control room who heard my reaction when we got the verdict realized that I was.

[00:00:50]In part because this is such a big trial with big personalities. And if Elon Musk had won, huge implications for OpenAI, that I think some people, myself included, didn't focus enough on this threshold issue, which of course was the entire ballgame when it came to this verdict, which is did Elon Musk bring this case in time? The statute of limitations starts when he knew or should have known of the alleged breach.

[00:01:18]At that point he has, depending on the claim, three or two years to bring the case. The jury found that he didn't make that timeline. And so they didn't even get to the other topics that you and I have been talking about, the credibility, whether or not there really was a enforceable contract that was made between Musk and Altman. And instead, they just said, "I'm sorry, you didn't file this on time, and that's it." Will there ever be a possibility, I guess a a high likelihood that we would hear something on the merits either in this case or in a separate case as it relates to AI.

[00:01:58]I don't think so, in part because I mean this verdict came quickly. It came in two hours. It you was unanimous. I think the judge took what 45 seconds to say, "I'm adopting this advisory verdict."

[00:02:11]And that means that it wasn't really a close call for the jury or for the judge. That I have to think is going to make an appeal more difficult. The appeal of course would have to focus on this issue. If it was successful, then it goes back to a trial court and then you could hear these claims on the merits. I tend to think this case won't have a huge impact beyond this case because it really was about these particular players and these particular companies. And so I don't think this is a big case about are we going to regulate AI? What does AI mean for the future of a variety of different sectors? This was really about Elon Musk and Sam Altman and whether or not they had created an enforceable contract.

[00:02:55]Jessica Levinson thanks as always.