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AI · Lawsuit · OpenAI · Trade Secrets
A federal judge dismissed Elon Musk's xAI trade secret lawsuit against Sam Altman's OpenAI, ruling xAI failed to prove OpenAI induced a former xAI engineer to divulge confidential Grok chatbot information, marking Musk's second legal loss against OpenAI in four weeks.
U.S. District Judge Rita Lin in San Francisco dismissed the lawsuit with prejudice, stating further continuation would be "futile" after an earlier dismissal in February. The amended complaint focused on a presentation by former xAI senior engineer Xuechen Li during OpenAI's recruitment, alleging OpenAI sought secrets for Grok 4 to compete with ChatGPT.
Judge Lin determined that asking job candidates about past work is routine, and no inference could be made that OpenAI pushed Li to leak confidential data, preventing employers from liability in such inquiries. OpenAI maintained Li never worked for the company and never acquired xAI secrets, calling the lawsuit "baseless" and part of Musk's "ongoing campaign of harassment." This follows a May 18 federal jury ruling against Musk in his $150 billion lawsuit accusing OpenAI of betraying its nonprofit mission.
Li faces a separate lawsuit from xAI and denies wrongdoing.
