A US federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit by Elon Musk's artificial intelligence company xAI that accused rival Sam Altman's OpenAI of stealing trade secrets for chatbots.

US District Judge Rita Lin in San Francisco ruled that xAI failed to show OpenAI induced former senior engineer Xuechen Li to divulge confidential information related to its Grok chatbot. The dismissal was with prejudice, deeming further litigation "futile."

This marks Musk's second legal loss against OpenAI in four weeks, following a May 18 jury verdict against his $150 billion lawsuit accusing OpenAI of betraying its nonprofit mission.

The amended complaint centered on a presentation Li gave while being recruited by OpenAI. xAI claimed OpenAI sought secrets about the July 2025 release of Grok 4, knowing its ChatGPT update "could not compete" on complex reasoning.

Judge Lin noted that asking job candidates about prior work is routine and cannot imply OpenAI pushed Li to leak confidential information. OpenAI has denied acquiring any xAI secrets, stating it "does not need or want anyone's trade secrets."

Source: www.aljazeera.com