Jury and Judge Rule in Favor of OpenAI; Huge Sigh of Relief for Altman & Co.

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Jury and Judge Rule in Favor of OpenAI; Huge Sigh of Relief for Altman & Co.

Industry Note

May 18, 2026 Disruptive Technology

Jury and Judge Rule in Favor of OpenAI; Huge Sigh of ReliefAnalysts

Dan Ives for Altman & Co.

(212) 344-2073

Dan.Ives@wedbush.com

Steven Wahrhaftig In the all-important trial between Elon Musk and OpenAI, the jury ruled in favor of(212) 931-7059

steven.wahrhaftig@wedbush.com Altman and OpenAI and rejected Musk’s claims against the company based on the

Sam Brandeis three-year statute of limitations as the claim strayed from the timing with Musk

(212) 222-3005 waiting too long to sue. With this, the jury did not need to go through the rest of

sam.brandeis@wedbush.com the case as it was ruled that Musk failed to file the lawsuit in the available window.

Anish Jog While the jury ruling was a major positive for OpenAI, this determination is from

(917) 747-3095 an advisory jury, meaning that the judge will have the final say while taking thisanish.jog@wedbush.com

decision into account with the final judgment with timing still to be determined.

Over the three weeks of testimony, the jury heard from Altman, Brockman, Musk,

and MSFT CEO Satya Nadella to get greater color into the case, but the jury ruled

in favor of OpenAI given Musk’s late filing. We note that OpenAI’s main argument

in defense revolved around the statute of limitations with the thought process

revolving around, “if he knew about it back then, why did he wait until now when

it was more convenient/suitable due to his competing AI firm”. There was still a

chance that the judge could rule against the jury’s initial determination, but the

judge ruled in favor of the jury within less than 15 minutes after the initial lawsuit

ruling came out removing the overhang completely from OpenAI.