- A US federal judge ruled that xAI did not provide sufficient evidence to show OpenAI improperly induced a former engineer to disclose trade secrets related to the Grok chatbot.
- The court found that discussing previous work during recruitment is standard practice and does not, on its own, indicate misuse or solicitation of confidential information.
- The case was dismissed with prejudice, marking another legal setback for Elon Musk following a separate major lawsuit loss against OpenAI earlier in the year.
OpenAI has secured a legal victory after a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit from Elon Musk’s xAI that alleged the company acquired trade secrets connected to the Grok chatbot.
In a ruling issued on 15 June, Judge Rita Lin found that xAI had not adequately supported claims that OpenAI induced former employee Xuechen Li to reveal confidential information while participating in the company’s recruitment process.
The dispute arose from a presentation Li delivered as part of discussions with OpenAI. xAI argued that OpenAI specifically targeted Li because of his involvement with Grok 4’s reinforcement learning and post-training work and sought access to sensitive information relating to those systems.
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Recruitment Discussions Ruled Routine
Lin concluded that the allegations were insufficient to establish that OpenAI encouraged the disclosure of trade secrets. She also determined that discussions about a candidate’s previous projects are a normal component of hiring and do not by themselves imply improper conduct.
The court additionally found that xAI failed to show OpenAI knew, or reasonably should have known, that confidential information may have been disclosed. The ruling noted that the complaint did not clearly explain what details were shared during the presentation or the level of detail contained in any supporting materials.
The lawsuit was dismissed with prejudice after the court determined further amendments would not resolve the deficiencies in xAI’s claims. An earlier version of the case had already been dismissed in February.
The outcome follows another recent legal defeat for Musk, whose US$150 billion (AU$213 billion) case against OpenAI, Sam Altman and Greg Brockman was rejected by a federal jury in May.
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