A federal jury ruled against Elon Musk on Monday in his lawsuit against OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman, delivering a swift verdict that took less than two hours of deliberation. The jury rejected Musk's claims, which centered on allegations that OpenAI had betrayed its founding mission as a nonprofit dedicated to the safe and open development of artificial intelligence.

Musk, who was an early backer and co-founder of OpenAI before departing its board in 2018, filed the lawsuit arguing that Altman and other defendants had broken promises made during the company's founding by steering OpenAI toward a for-profit model. He sought damages and had asked the court to block OpenAI's planned conversion to a fully for-profit corporation.

The rapid jury verdict was widely seen as a decisive defeat for Musk. Jurors dismissed his claims after a trial that drew intense scrutiny given both Musk's prominence as a tech entrepreneur and OpenAI's central role in the global artificial intelligence industry. OpenAI and Altman had maintained throughout the proceedings that no enforceable contracts were breached and that the company's evolution was consistent with its goals.

The outcome clears a significant legal obstacle for OpenAI as it pursues its restructuring into a for-profit public benefit corporation, a process that has attracted billions of dollars in investment. The verdict does not, however, resolve broader regulatory and public interest questions surrounding OpenAI's governance and its obligations to its original nonprofit mission, which remain subjects of ongoing scrutiny by state attorneys general.

Musk, who has his own competing AI venture called xAI, did not immediately comment publicly on the verdict. Legal analysts noted that the speed of the jury's decision suggested the evidence presented at trial did not support Musk's core contractual claims. The case had been closely watched as a test of whether early promises made by AI founders could be enforced as the industry rapidly commercializes.