Cummins Inc. must pay California-based C3 AI more than $23 million in damages after a jury found it misappropriated trade secrets.

C3 sued Cummins over an artificial intelligence application to reduce fuel consumption. In its complaint, C3 said Cummins secretly hired another team in India to replicate the application.

A jury in Delaware Superior Court sided with C3 last week after seven days of deliberation.

“We placed our faith in the United States justice system, and the justice system worked,” said C3 chairman and CEO Thomas Siebel. “This verdict is a rebuke of Cummins’ actions that reflect poorly on Cummins’ executive management.”

According to the lawsuit, C3 staff became aware of the issue when they were accidentally copied on an internal Cummins email.

“When confronted with the email, Cummins was forced to admit its plan to build its own AI application to displace” C3’s application, the complaint said.

C3 initially expected to receive between $500 million and $1 billion, the Indianapolis Business Journal reported in 2023.

“Cummins respects the jury’s role and the legal process but disagrees with the outcome of the case and stands by its commitment to conduct business with integrity and respect of the law,” spokesperson Melinda Koski said.