Blockbuster AI Trial Ends With Elon Musk Loss Against OpenAI

Steve Booth (0:00)

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Alex Ossola (0:33)

Elon Musk loses his case in the high-profile Silicon Valley trial between him and OpenAI.

Plus, a new $1.776 billion Trump administration fund will pay people who say they were hurt by the legal system. And it's getting pushback.

Ryan Barber (0:49)

The Justice Department is saying that there is precedent for this, but you have a number of legal experts out there saying that this is creating that apparatus to potentially reward a number of Trump's allies who've received some scrutiny from federal investigators or prosecutors in recent years.

Alex Ossola (1:07)

And why a deal between two of the largest US electricity providers is likely to face scrutiny from regulators. It's Monday, May 18th. I'm Alex Ossola for the Wall Street Journal. This is the PM Edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories that moved the world today.

We begin tonight's show in Oakland, California, where a three-week trial that fixated the tech world has reached a verdict. The jury there has rejected Elon Musk's claims against OpenAI.

He has alleged that OpenAI, quote, stole a charity when it converted into a for-profit company. The jury took less than two hours to return the verdict, and they dismissed the case on a technicality. They found that Musk brought his lawsuit against OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman after the statute of limitations expired. Musk's attorney said in court that his side will reserve its right to appeal.

Deputy Tech Bureau Chief Bradley Olson told our tech news briefing podcast that the outcome wasn't a surprise.

Bradley Olson (2:03)

We did a story before the trial basically saying that Musk was an underdog in the case, and we even looked at prediction markets, which had kind of found that to be true too. And so yes, this was the outcome that was expected. However, one of the most interesting things that came out, we've done some reporting at the Journal about Sam Altman's personal investments and examples when there were overlap in deals that OpenAI did with outside companies and Sam having personal investments in those companies. And so there were a lot of details and specifics about those holdings that came out. It was also revealed that Greg Brockman, OpenAI's president holds a stake in OpenAI that's worth about $30 billion.

A lot of disclosure and detail about their personal finances came out. And I think we will look back on it as something that litigated the foundational moments of the AI boom. And then I think it also brought us a new perspective and new information about some of these figures that are at the heart of this new technological revolution. So I think it'll be remembered for that, if nothing else.

Alex Ossola (3:12)

A decision against OpenAI could have created big problems for the company.

Bradley Olson (3:15)

The potential remedies would have unwound the conversion into a for-profit company. It could have ousted Sam Altman as CEO of OpenAI, and it could have required the for-profit company to fork over as much as like $180 billion to the non-profit. And so it would have really drastically affected their ability to operate.

Alex Ossola (3:37)

So for now, the trial's conclusion removes a hurdle in OpenAI's path to an IPO.

And we should note that News Corp, owner of the Wall Street Journal, has a content licensing partnership with OpenAI.

And now on to one of the biggest deals of the year. It's Florida-based NextEra Energy, the owner of Florida Power and Light, which has agreed to buy Virginia utility Dominion Energy. The $67 billion tie-up would create an East Coast energy titan. Utilities are seeing a massive upswing in demand because of the buildout of AI data centers, and the industry plans to spend tens of billions of dollars to build new sources of power generation and transmission. For more on the deal, Jennifer Hiller, who covers the power industry for the journal, joins me now. Jennifer, tell us more about the companies involved in this deal.

Jennifer Hiller (4:25)

NextEra is the biggest utility in the country, and Dominion is one of the biggest. They're talking about a lot of customers, 10 million across four states. NextEra is a humongous developer of renewable energy resources. They have a lot of wind, solar, and battery across the country. They own a lot of transmission lines.