US judge dismisses Musk's trade secrets case against OpenAI
What's the story
A US judge has dismissed a lawsuit from Elon Musk's artificial intelligence company, xAI, against rival firm OpenAI. The lawsuit accused OpenAI of being involved in a situation where trade secrets related to its Grok chatbot were allegedly taken by former xAI employees. However, US District Judge Rita Lin in San Francisco said that xAI had not provided sufficient evidence to prove that OpenAI encouraged theft or used any stolen secrets.
Case continuation
xAI can refile case until March 17
Despite the dismissal, Judge Lin has given xAI until March 17, 2026, to refile its case with more details. The lawsuit claimed that some former employees of xAI took source code before joining OpenAI. However, the court found their evidence lacking and said there were no allegations about OpenAI's conduct in this matter.
Defense strategy
OpenAI calls xAI's lawsuit harassment
In response to the trade-secrets case, OpenAI called it a "campaign to harass a competitor with unfounded legal claims." The company also pointed out that a related suit by xAI names an engineer who never actually worked at OpenAI.
Ongoing litigation
Musk suing Microsoft and OpenAI for $134.5B
The trade secrets lawsuit is part of a larger legal battle between Musk and Microsoft-backed OpenAI over its conversion to a for-profit company. Musk, the world's richest person, is seeking as much as $134.5 billion in damages from OpenAI and Microsoft in this case. Jury selection for this high-stakes trial is scheduled for April 27, 2026.