New Delhi, May 20 -- Elon Musk, who co-founded OpenAI as a non-profit entity in 2015 along with Sam Altman and others, has suffered a setback. His lawsuit against Altman for turning a carved-out subsidiary of OpenAI into a profit-oriented entity has been rejected by a US court.

Musk's suit was found to be too late under the law of limitations, which prevents legal action against an event after a specified time lapse. In this case, Musk ought to have sought legal recourse within three years.

Musk alleged that Altman had diverted startup funds provided by him for do-gooder goals into a profit chase. Although Musk lost the case, he succeeded in giving renewed publicity to a controversy that has shadowed OpenAI ever since late 2023, when it...