Musk tried to enlist Zuckerberg to help finance OpenAI takeover bid

OpenAI said Musk identified Zuckerberg, as one of the people with whom he had communicated about potentially financing a deal to purchase the ChatGPT maker

By Rachel Metz and Kurt Wagner

 

Elon Musk tried to enlist Mark Zuckerberg for his unsolicited bid to buy OpenAI this year, the startup said in a court filing.

 

OpenAI said Musk identified Zuckerberg, the chief executive officer of Meta Platforms Inc., as one of the people with whom he had communicated about potentially financing a deal to purchase the ChatGPT maker.

 

Neither Zuckerberg nor Meta signed the letter of intent or participated in the $97.4 billion bid, OpenAI said in the filing. OpenAI’s board formally rejected Musk’s bid in February.

 

Musk and his representatives didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Meta declined to comment. OpenAI declined to comment beyond the court filing. 

 

Musk worked with Sam Altman to found OpenAI a decade ago before going on to launch a rival startup, xAI. He has been locked in a legal skirmish with OpenAI, repeatedly trying to derail the startup’s plans to restructure as a more conventional for-profit business. The billionaire filed two lawsuits against OpenAI for allegedly straying from its founding principles and asked a court to block the company’s restructuring efforts.

 

Evidence that Musk was quietly trying to persuade one of OpenAI’s chief rivals to help him acquire the startup could undercut the billionaire’s legal claims that Altman’s partnership with Microsoft Corp. betrayed the OpenAI’s charity mission. The judge overseeing the legal battle previously has written that “efforts by Musk to incorporate OpenAI into Tesla or to convert it into a for-profit company are relevant because they may be inconsistent” with his claims against Altman and OpenAI.

 

OpenAI asked in the filing Thursday for the judge to order Meta to turn over documentation related to any communication the tech company had with Musk. 

 

Meta urged the court to deny OpenAI’s request, saying, “Meta’s documents can hold no evidence of ‘coordination’ with Musk, or of Meta’s purported attempt to purchase OpenAI, or of any other relevant information when Meta did not join Musk’s bid.”

 

“Meta’s communications (if any) with entities that did join the bid also hold little to no relevance, and in any event, should be sought from those entities, not Meta, which did not participate,” the company added.