Mike Isaac reports live from outside the courthouse on the Musk vs. OpenAI verdict

Musk vs. OpenAI: Jury dismisses in 90 minutes

A jury unanimously dismissed Elon Musk's lawsuit against OpenAI after roughly 90 minutes of deliberation, finding his claims barred by the statute of limitations. The judge upheld the verdict without challenge.

The speed of the decision surprised reporters who had prepared for days of deliberations. Mike Isaac, covering the trial for the New York Times, was outside the courthouse when the clerk interrupted proceedings to announce the jury had returned.

“The jury comes back in and delivers the verdict in less than two hours. The statute of limitations was the ballgame — if they had not found that burden to be met, then we would have seen how it really played out. OpenAI is really on its back foot in a lot of ways. This gives them some relief in the many fronts they're being attacked on, whether it's going public this year with a messy balance sheet or Anthropic coming after them.”

Statute of limitations, not character

The outcome cuts against Musk's trial strategy. His legal team built its public case around digestible narrative — "you can't steal a charity" — betting that jurors unfamiliar with nonprofit contract law would respond to a character-driven argument about a billionaire trying to stop something dangerous. OpenAI's more technical position, that Musk had waited too long to file, was the quieter argument. It was also the one that won.

Isaac says the AI safety testimony, which drew significant coverage during the trial, may have been a miscalculation — pulling attention toward a question the jury never actually ruled on.

Musk's absence, and why it probably didn't matter

Musk left the country mid-trial to join Trump on a China trip, without being formally excused. Isaac reports that Musk's legal team had pre-cleared the absence with the judge after both sides decided they would not recall him to testify. OpenAI's expert witnesses still needed substantial time, and Musk's early testimony had already run long. Sam Altman and Greg Brockman were present for most of the proceedings; Musk was not. Given the jury focused on a procedural question rather than credibility, his absence likely had no bearing on the outcome.

Appeals and what comes next

The judge's decision to affirm the jury's verdict rather than override it matters for any appeal Musk's team might mount. Isaac notes that a judge who clearly respected the jury's deliberation gives an appeals court less room to argue the verdict was disregarded.

OpenAI gets a reprieve, but a narrow one. The company is navigating a messy balance sheet ahead of a potential IPO, intensifying competition from Anthropic and Google, and several other active legal fronts. The trial result removes one pressure, not all of them.