CHINA PERSPECTIVE

Beijing, May 21, 2026. The South China Morning Post, the principal Anglophone Hong Kong newspaper read in Chinese and Asian business circles, has extensively covered the decision of the federal jury in Oakland that dismissed Elon Musk's complaint against OpenAI. The verdict, rendered unanimously after less than two hours of deliberation, settles a conflict born of the very foundation of the company in 2015 by Sam Altman, Musk, and other investors.

The jury concluded that Musk had filed his lawsuit out of time, dismissing him for prescription without examining the substance of the accusations. Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, and Greg Brockman, president of the company, were both found not liable for violating the contractual commitments made during the creation of the startup. Musk claimed to have been led to give $38 million to the organization before it turned its mission on a non-profit basis into a commercial structure.

The South China Morning Post highlights that Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers was ready to dismiss the case outright, declaring that there was 'a substantial amount of evidence to support the jury's conclusion.' Musk's lawyer reserved the right to appeal, but the judge herself indicated that the path would be difficult given that prescription is a factual question settled by the jury.

The trial was presented as a turning point for the future of artificial intelligence, both in its uses and in the distribution of its profits. The two sides had mutually accused each other of placing money above public interest. Musk, who has since founded his own AI laboratory, xAI, had left the OpenAI board of directors in 2018, before the company began its accelerated commercial transformation driven by Microsoft's massive investment.

From a Chinese perspective, the case is treated primarily as an American judicial matter and not as a question directly affecting China's technological interests. The newspaper does not draw a parallel with China's AI policies or with national champions like Baidu or DeepSeek. The angle retained remains that of the personal rivalry between two emblematic figures of Silicon Valley, presented as equally motivated by financial as well as ideological interests.