Elon Musk Loses OpenAI Lawsuit, Calls Ruling a Dangerous Precedent

A jury rejected Elon Musk's $150 billion lawsuit against OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman on May 18, 2026, ruling that Musk waited too long to sue. The judge accepted the verdict and dismissed Musk's claims that OpenAI leaders had improperly converted a charity he helped fund into a for-profit business.

Musk spoke with Forbes chief content officer Randall Lane hours after the verdict at the Forbes Innovator 250 celebration dinner in Palo Alto. He described the outcome as a threat to charitable giving.

To the Verdict "I think this is a dangerous precedent to set," Musk told Forbes. " Musk declined to comment on SpaceX's planned IPO filing scheduled for Wednesday, which seeks to raise as much as $75 billion at a valuation of more than $2 trillion. Shares will trade on NASDAQ under the ticker SPCX and will bundle SpaceX's space and Starlink operations with xAI, which SpaceX acquired in February.

Musk predicted rapid advances in artificial intelligence and robotics over the next five to seven years. "In five years, digital intelligence will exceed the sum of all human intelligence," he said. " He added that the economy is likely to double in size within five to six years and that the rate of AI development is accelerating quickly.

"When I go to sleep, there's an AI breakthrough, when I go to lunch there's a breakthrough," Musk said. Musk named Nikola Tesla and Nvidia founder Jensen Huang as his favorite entrepreneurs. He encouraged other business leaders to pursue opportunities in boring tunnels for transportation, new synthetic medicines using RNA technologies, and electric aircraft.

Musk said he focuses on building technologies necessary to extend life beyond Earth rather than thinking about how his companies will be remembered in history books. When asked what he wants to be remembered for in 250 years, he replied, "He played a useful role in the advancement of civilization.