A U.S. jury has dismissed Elon Musk's lawsuit against OpenAI. At the same time, competitor Anthropic has acquired the AI development infrastructure company Stainless to strengthen its API and agent ecosystem.
According to reports from TechCrunch and other outlets on May 19, a jury in a California federal court ruled in favor of the defendants in Musk's lawsuit against Sam Altman, Greg Brockman, OpenAI, and Microsoft on May 18. The jury unanimously determined that "the deadline for filing the lawsuit had already passed."
Musk had claimed that the co-founders of OpenAI transitioned the nonprofit research organization into a for-profit entity to pursue private interests. He accused OpenAI of "stealing from charity" and pointed out that Microsoft was deeply involved in the commercialization process.
During the trial, testimonies regarding the background of OpenAI's organizational transition and key figures in Silicon Valley were presented, but the main focus was on the legal statute of limitations. OpenAI argued that the damages Musk claimed had occurred before 2021, asserting that the lawsuit itself was time-barred, a position the jury accepted.
Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers stated immediately after the verdict that "there was sufficient evidence to support the jury's decision." Industry observers noted that this ruling significantly alleviated major legal uncertainties that could have impacted OpenAI's restructuring or initial public offering (IPO).
OpenAI criticized Musk's claims as "unfounded post hoc assertions," stating they were merely attempts to disrupt a competitor. Microsoft also affirmed its commitment to continue AI collaboration for individuals and businesses worldwide.
Musk promptly expressed his intention to appeal. He wrote on his X (formerly Twitter) account, "It is clear that Altman and Brockman used the charity to pursue personal gain, and I will appeal to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to protect the U.S. donation and charity system."
On the same day, AI company Anthropic officially announced its acquisition of the developer tools startup Stainless. While the specific acquisition amount was not disclosed, reports suggest the deal exceeds $300 million (approximately 410 billion won).
Founded in 2022, Stainless has gained attention for its technology that automatically generates and manages software development kits (SDKs) for various programming languages, including Python, Java, Go, and TypeScript, based on API specifications. Major AI companies, including OpenAI and Google, have reportedly utilized this solution.
A key advantage is its ability to automatically maintain and update SDKs required for AI agents to connect with external services. This capability reduces repetitive SDK management tasks, enhancing development efficiency and establishing itself as a core infrastructure in the AI API ecosystem.
Following the acquisition, Anthropic plans to gradually phase out the hosting products operated by Stainless. Industry analysts view this as effectively internalizing a critical development infrastructure previously used by competitors.
Anthropic explained, "We have been building official SDKs using Stainless technology since the early API operational phase." Alex Lattre, founder of Stainless, also noted, "Seeing the results produced by developers in the Claude ecosystem made collaboration between our companies a natural choice."
* This article has been translated by AI.
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