Elon Musk asked Mark Zuckerberg to support his $97.6B OpenAI takeover bid, but Meta rejected the offer, filings show. Photos/X.
Elon Musk attempted to secure Mark Zuckerberg’s support in his effort to acquire OpenAI, according to a recent court filing. The Tesla and SpaceX CEO, through his artificial intelligence company xAI, reached out to the Meta chief to explore “potential financing arrangements or investments” in the AI company.
OpenAI disclosed in Thursday’s filing that neither Zuckerberg nor Meta signed Musk’s letter of intent. In February, Musk’s lawyer confirmed that a consortium of Musk-led investors had submitted a $97.6 billion bid to purchase OpenAI. The company ultimately turned down the proposal.
Musk co-founded OpenAI in 2015 alongside Sam Altman and several others. However, he stepped down from the board in 2018, citing differences over the company’s direction after it adopted a for-profit model and began exploring a partnership with Microsoft.
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Following his departure, Musk launched rival startup xAI. He has since filed two lawsuits against OpenAI, accusing the company of breaching its founding principles by prioritizing commercial interests over public benefit. Musk has also sought to block OpenAI’s restructuring plans through the courts.
In February, he escalated his criticism of Altman, calling the OpenAI chief “Scam Altman.”
The rivalry has repeatedly spilled into the public arena. Just last week, Musk and Altman clashed on X (formerly Twitter) after Musk threatened to sue Apple. He accused the tech giant of granting preferential treatment to ChatGPT in the App Store rankings.
Meanwhile, Meta has been aggressively expanding its artificial intelligence division to rival OpenAI’s ChatGPT. In the past year, the company has intensified the development of its large language model and chatbot.
Over the summer, Meta launched a hiring spree, reportedly offering researchers from leading AI lab – including OpenAI -compensation packages worth up to $100 million to join its superintelligence team.
High-profile recruits include former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman, Scale AI founder Alexandr Wang, and ex-OpenAI researchers Shengjia Zhao, Shuchao Bi, Jiahui Yu, and Hongyu Ren.
In its latest filing, OpenAI asked the court to compel Meta to provide documentation of any communications it may have had with Musk or his company xAI.
Zubair Amin is a Senior Journalist at NewsX with over seven years of experience in reporting and editorial work. He has written for leading national and international publications, including Foreign Policy Magazine, Al Jazeera, The Economic Times, The Indian Express, The Wire, Article 14, Mongabay, News9, among others. His primary focus is on international affairs, with a strong interest in US politics and policy. He also writes on West Asia, Indian polity, and constitutional issues. Zubair tweets at zubaiyr.amin
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