OAKLAND, Calif. — A lawyer for tech billionaire Elon Musk apologized to jurors on Thursday for his client’s absence from the courtroom and asked them not to read too much into it, as closing statements began in Musk’s lawsuit against artificial intelligence startup OpenAI.

“He’s sorry that he could not be here, but I think you saw from his testimony that this is something that he’s passionate about,” said the lawyer, Steven Molo.

As a three-week blockbuster federal trial neared its end, Musk was half a world away in China, joining President Donald Trump and other U.S. business executives on an official state visit.…