Federal jury dismisses Elon Musk's lawsuit against OpenAI, rules he waited too long to bring case

Every now and again, a billionaire doesn't get what he wants. On Monday, Elon Musk was handed a rare loss when a federal jury in San Francisco unanimously threw out his lawsuit against OpenAI's top leaders, including CEO Sam Altman.

Musk had alleged that Altman illegally enriched himself when converting OpenAI—the nonprofit both men helped co-found—into a for-profit company. The jury, however, found that Musk, who owns a competing AI company, xAI, waited too long to bring the case.

That means Musk won't get what he sought, at least this time:

• He won't get the restoration of OpenAI's nonprofit status
• He won't get Altman's removal from its board
• He won't get more than $150 billion in damages from OpenAI and Microsoft

The Bigger Picture

Thus ends this little drama. The bigger story isn't over. Altman may have won against Musk, but their mud fight is a grating and relatively minor plot point in the long chronicle of AI companies exploiting lavishly funded public-private partnerships to force their plans and products onto the rest of us.

Indeed, the many ways that the Trump White House is helping this incestuous network of companies steamroll public opposition and regulation should be understood as part of the administration's broader pursuit of two mutually dependent goals: minority rule and the enrichment of the ultrawealthy.

A Familiar Alliance

Donald Trump and Silicon Valley executives both like to pretend they're transforming the status quo. A reactionary alliance between the right and big business, though, is pretty standard fare. As historians like Nancy MacLean have detailed, corporate leaders have spent decades attempting to insulate themselves from the democratic decision-making that threatens to limit their profits and their fringe ideologies.

Trump's outlandish behavior shouldn't distract from the fact that his White House is chasing the fairly traditional Republican goals of:

• Slashing taxes for corporations and the rich
• Torching environmental regulations
• Rolling back civil rights protections

Public Opposition to AI Expansion

The fact that Silicon Valley executives try to claim a vaguely liberal-coded moral high ground is likewise a helpful cover for their own self-interest in minority rule.

A recent Gallup poll found that 71 percent of Americans oppose the local construction of AI data centers. An Economist/YouGov survey showed that 70 percent of Americans—including 68 percent of Republicans, and majorities across every age demographic—think AI is advancing too quickly.

Local Resistance Grows

This overwhelming disapproval is a sign that what companies like xAI and OpenAI have pitched as the inevitable march of progress is anything but.

• Last year, nearly 50 data center projects worth at least $156 billion were blocked or stalled by local opposition
• An analysis from Heatmap Pro found that data center cancellations reached an all-time high in the first half of 2026, with local opposition quelling 20 proposed projects worth nearly $42 billion
• Municipal governments from Indiana to New Jersey have passed local bans on data center expansion
• Maine's legislature passed the country's first-ever statewide moratorium earlier this year, which Democratic Governor Janet Mills eventually vetoed; she suspended her Senate campaign a few days later

In recent weeks, commencement speakers...