A federal judge in San Francisco permanently dismissed Elon Musk's AI company xAI's trade secret lawsuit against OpenAI, barring xAI from ever refiling. Judge Rita Lin ruled that xAI failed to prove OpenAI solicited former xAI senior engineer Li Xuechen to leak secrets about the Grok chatbot, nor that OpenAI knew Li might have disclosed confidential information.
The dispute centered on a PowerPoint presentation Li showed during a job interview with OpenAI. xAI alleged that OpenAI, behind on complex reasoning and reinforcement learning, tried to extract secrets about the Grok 4 model (released July 2025). But the judge determined that asking candidates about prior work is standard hiring practice. Ruling otherwise would expose every employer to legal risk during interviews.
The dismissal marks Musk's second legal loss against OpenAI in four weeks. On May 18, a federal jury rejected his $150 billion lawsuit accusing OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman of abandoning their nonprofit mission. OpenAI stated Li never joined the company and that it never obtained xAI secrets. Li, separately sued by xAI, has denied any wrongdoing.