A California federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by Elon Musk’s AI startup xAI, marking a legal victory for Sam Altman and OpenAI. The case, which accused OpenAI of poaching employees to steal trade secrets, was thrown out by U.S. District Judge Rita Lin, who found the allegations lacked sufficient evidence. In her ruling, Judge Lin noted that the complaint failed to allege any misconduct by OpenAI itself. “Notably absent are allegations about the conduct of OpenAI,” she wrote. “xAI does not allege any facts indicating that OpenAI induced xAI's former employees to steal xAI's trade secrets or that these former xAI employees used any stolen trade secrets once employed by OpenAI.” The lawsuit had centered on eight former xAI employees who joined OpenAI around the same time, but the judge said this alone was not enough to support a claim of trade secret theft. She gave xAI until March 17 to file an amended complaint, correcting the deficiencies in its original filing. This decision is the latest development in a bitter legal and public feud between Musk and Altman, who co-founded OpenAI in 2015. Last year, xAI sued Apple and OpenAI, alleging monopolistic practices. Musk has also filed a separate lawsuit against Altman and OpenAI, claiming the company abandoned its original nonprofit mission by shifting to a for-profit model. OpenAI has countersued, accusing Musk of a “years-long campaign of harassment.” In response to the dismissal, OpenAI issued a statement on the social media platform X, welcoming the court’s decision and calling the lawsuit “yet another front in Mr. Musk's ongoing campaign of harassment.” The company maintained that the allegations were baseless and designed to intimidate employees. xAI’s original complaint claimed OpenAI was engaged in a “deeply troubling pattern” of recruiting former xAI staff to gain access to confidential information related to Grok, the startup’s flagship chatbot. It alleged that OpenAI was conducting a “coordinated, unfair, and unlawful campaign” by targeting individuals with knowledge of xAI’s technology and business plans. The lawsuit cited the hiring of early xAI engineer Jimmy Fraiture and a senior finance executive, among others. It also claimed two former employees admitted to stealing trade secrets. OpenAI has denied all accusations, asserting that the claims are part of a broader effort to disrupt its operations. In its motion to dismiss, OpenAI argued that xAI failed to prove that any trade secrets were actually acquired or disclosed by OpenAI. “XAI's federal trade secret misappropriation claim fails as a matter of law,” the company’s attorneys stated, emphasizing that the complaint lacked any factual basis for the core allegations.