Elon Musk asked Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to join xAI bid to buy OpenAI, filing shows

Elon Musk, the world's richest person, asked Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to help him finance a $97.4 billion takeover of OpenAI in early 2025, court filings on Thursday revealed.

The filing is part of a legal case between Musk and OpenAI that was initiated last year. The case is proceeding in a federal court in Northern California, and a judge recently said OpenAI can move ahead with counter claims against Musk, who co-founded OpenAI as a non-profit with Sam Altman and others in 2015.

When Musk floated his proposal to buy OpenAI in February, he was incensed that the company and Altman, OpenAI's CEO, were pushing to transform the business into a for-profit entity. Altman and Musk, who were longtime friends, have become bitter adversaries since OpenAI's emergence as a leader in generative AI with billions of dollars in funding from Microsoft.

Musk started xAI in 2023 and was pushing for it to be a direct competitor to OpenAI. Musk later sued OpenAI, alleging a breach of contract, and tried to stop OpenAI from converting to a for-profit company.

In its counter claims, OpenAI has alleged that Musk and xAI's "sham bid" harmed its business and that Musk has engaged in "harassment" through litigation and attacks on social media and in the press.

As part of its complaint, OpenAI has filed to subpoena Meta for communications between the company, its CEO and Musk about the bid.

In a statement to the court published Thursday, OpenAI said that when Musk and xAI were trying to form a consortium of investors to finance a takeover, they approached Zuckerberg with a letter of intent and asked "about potential financing arrangements or investments."

Neither Zuckerberg nor Meta signed the LOI, the filing said.

A Meta spokesperson declined to comment. Marc Toberoff, Musk's attorney in the case, didn't respond to a request for comment.

The statement in the filing said that Meta has been "spending heavily to develop its own Al capabilities" and has been "offering pay packages of $100 million or more to leading Al researchers and attempting to poach OpenAI employees."

Meta has argued that OpenAI's requests for documents are overly burdensome, and that OpenAI should obtain relevant communications from Musk and xAI, instead.

The legal battle between Musk and OpenAI highlights the dramatic transformation of the AI landscape. What began as a collaborative mission to develop safe artificial intelligence has now evolved into one of the fiercest rivalries in the tech industry. Musk’s xAI represents his determination to compete head-to-head with the company he once helped establish, showing how deeply personal and strategic this conflict has become.

Observers note that Musk’sdecision to reach out to Zuckerberg, a figure with whom he has often shared public tension, reveals the scale of ambition behind the attempted takeover. Seeking nearly $100 billion in funding suggests that Musk was not only aiming to regain influence over OpenAI but also to consolidate power within the AI industry, challenging Microsoft’s dominance as OpenAI’s biggest backer.

For Zuckerberg and Meta, the decision not to join Musk’s consortium could reflect a strategic calculation. Meta has been investing heavily in open-source AI, especially through its LLaMA models, and aligning with Musk might have conflicted with its broader vision of making AI tools widely accessible. Instead of joining a Musk-led effort, Meta appears to be focusing on building its independent AI ecosystem, one that directly rivals OpenAI without collaboration with xAI.

The broader implications of this legal dispute extend beyond Musk, Altman, or Zuckerberg. The case underscores the growing tensions between different philosophies of AI development: closed, profit-driven approaches versus open, collaborative ecosystems. These differences not only shape corporate competition but could also influence how billions of people worldwide interact with AI in the future.

Legal experts suggest that this lawsuit could set a precedent for future disputes in the rapidly expanding AI sector. If the courts allow broad discovery of communications between Musk, Meta, and other potential investors, it could expose behind-the-scenes strategies and negotiations that typically remain hidden. Such transparency might influence how large technology firms approach acquisitions, partnerships, and competition going forward.

As the case unfolds, many industry analysts believe the rivalry will intensify. With OpenAI backed by Microsoft, Meta pursuing its own research aggressively, and Musk pushing xAI as a disruptive challenger, the race to dominate generative AI is becoming more contentious than ever. The outcome of this dispute could very well shape the direction of artificial intelligence innovation for years to come.