Oakland Jury Sides With Altman and OpenAI in Musk v. Altman, Verdict Hinges on Statute of Limitations

On Monday 18 May 2026, a federal advisory jury in Oakland, California, returned a verdict for Sam Altman and OpenAI in Musk v. Altman after less than two hours of deliberation. The nine-person jury found that Elon Musk's claims of breach of charitable trust and unjust enrichment fell outside the three-year statute of limitations. District Court Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, who retained final authority on the two remaining equitable claims, immediately adopted the advisory verdict. The court did not reach the merits of Musk's underlying allegation that OpenAI's for-profit conversion violated the original founding mission. Musk posted on X that the decision was a 'calendar technicality' and announced his legal team would appeal to the Ninth Circuit US Court of Appeals. The verdict closes the Oakland phase of a trial that has been tracked across the archive's AI-governance line, with prior entries covering Satya Nadella's 11 May testimony, Altman's 12 May testimony, the 14 May closing arguments and the 16 May Week 3 wrap-ups. The substantive question of whether OpenAI's structural conversion is consistent with its 2015 founding charter remains undecided in any forum.