Cards Against Humanity has settled its trespassing lawsuit against SpaceX. The party game company, known for its provocative humor, filed the complaint one year ago alongside a profanity-laced marketing campaign targeting Elon Musk’s rocket company.
The dispute involved a plot of land along the Rio Grande River in Cameron County, Texas. Cards Against Humanity purchased this land in 2017. The purchase was crowdfunded through 150,000 separate fifteen-dollar donations, totaling 2.25 million dollars, from supporters who wanted to help block President Donald Trump’s proposed border wall.
This land was located directly next to the site where SpaceX has been building its Starbase rocket complex. The issue arose in 2024 when Cards Against Humanity accused SpaceX of trespassing on the property and dumping construction equipment and materials there. SpaceX and a lawyer for the company did not respond to requests for comment at the time.
The terms of the settlement were not publicly disclosed. Cards Against Humanity had originally been seeking fifteen million dollars in the lawsuit. The company had told its supporters, who helped fund the land, that it hoped to pay them as much as one hundred dollars each from the proceeds. However, those supporters will not receive cash. Instead, they can sign up for a brand new mini-pack of exclusive cards all about Elon Musk, which is a special expansion for the popular party game.
In an email to supporters, the company wrote that while it could not give them the cash money from Elon Musk, it would make it up to them with comedy through the new mini-pack of cards. The company stated it was happy to have stood up to a bully like Musk and to have forced a settlement. Cards Against Humanity also said that SpaceX has removed its construction equipment and that the company is now working to restore the land to its natural state, devoid of what it called space garbage and pointless border walls.
In a previous email last year, the company had told supporters that Elon Musk had snuck up on them and damaged the land with gravel, tractors, and space garbage. It had even launched a website with the title ElonOwesYou100Dollars.com. At that time, Cards Against Humanity said its reputation for keeping outrageous promises was on the line, but it also warned supporters that Musk had far more money and lawyers, so they would probably get only a couple of dollars at most. Now, they will not even get that amount.
The lawsuit had progressed quickly. The two sides had already gone through the discovery process, where both parties exchange evidence before a trial, and a trial was slated for November. Cards Against Humanity stated that SpaceX admitted to the trespass during discovery, which the gaming company called a real vindication.
Cards Against Humanity said on Monday that it was prepared to go to trial and was confident it would have won. But the company ultimately decided that a trial would have cost more than what it was likely to win from SpaceX. The company explained that under Texas law, it likely would not have been able to recoup its legal fees. It stated that while it had the truth on its side, Musk and SpaceX could easily outspend them.
Elon Musk is well-known for his willingness to fight his perceived enemies in court. He once claimed that Tesla’s hardcore litigation department would never surrender or settle an unjust case against them, even if they would probably lose. Despite that statement, Musk and his companies often settle. The Cards Against Humanity case is not the first settlement this year. Earlier this month, X settled a complaint filed by former Twitter executives. Tesla has also settled a number of Autopilot-related cases. One Autopilot case that Tesla did not settle, despite having the chance to do so, became one of its highest-profile court losses to date.