"OpenAI Inc. and Microsoft will face a jury trial this spring after a federal judge rejected their efforts to dismiss Elon Musk's lawsuit, which accuses the artificial intelligence startup of abandoning its original nonprofit mission. The ruling keeps alive claims that OpenAI misled the Tesla CEO about its charitable purpose while accepting billions of dollars in funding. As noted in a report from Bloomberg News, a federal judge in Oakland, California, ruled that OpenAI Inc. and Microsoft failed to show that Musk's claims should be dismissed. U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers stated that while the evidence remains unclear, Musk has maintained that OpenAI "had a specific charitable purpose and that he attached two fundamental terms to it: that OpenAI be open source and that it would remain a nonprofit - purposes consistent with OpenAI's charter and mission.""
"Judge Gonzalez Rogers also rejected an argument by OpenAI suggesting that Musk's use of an intermediary to donate $38 million in seed money to the company stripped him of legal standing. "Holding otherwise would significantly reduce the enforcement of a large swath of charitable trusts, contrary to the modern trend," Judge Gonzalez Rogers wrote. A federal judge today denied OpenAI's motion for summary judgement in Elon Musk's lawsuit against Sam Altman and OpenAI. Microsoft's motion for summary judgement was also mostly denied, but granted in part. The case will continue on to trial. pic.twitter.com/45kOqJBfaN- Whole Mars Catalog (@wholemars) January 16, 2026 The judge also declined to dismiss Musk's fraud allegations, citing internal OpenAI communications from 2017 involving co-founder Greg Brockman. In an email cited by the judge, fellow OpenAI board member Shivon Zilis informed Musk that Brockman would "like to continue with the"
A federal judge in Oakland declined to dismiss Elon Musk's suit against OpenAI Inc. and Microsoft, preserving claims that OpenAI misled Musk about a charitable purpose while taking billions in funding. The judge noted Musk's contention that OpenAI had a specific charitable purpose with two terms: open source and nonprofit status. The judge rejected OpenAI's standing argument regarding a $38 million intermediary donation, finding that dismissing it would reduce enforcement of charitable trusts. The judge denied summary judgment for OpenAI and mostly denied Microsoft's motion, and refused to dismiss fraud allegations citing 2017 internal communications and an email mentioning Greg Brockman.
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