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

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

August 22, 2025
03:06 AM
3 min read
AI Enhanced
financeinvestmentstocks

Key Takeaways

In early 2025, xAI CEO Elon Musk asked Meta's Mark Zuckerberg to help him finance a $97.4 billion takeover of OpenAI, new court filings revealed.

Article Overview

Quick insights and key information

Reading Time

3 min read

Estimated completion

Category

investment

Article classification

Published

August 22, 2025

03:06 AM

Source

CNBC

Original publisher

Key Topics
financeinvestmentstocks

In this articleMETA your favorite stocksCREATE FREE ACCOUNTMeta CEO, Mark Zuckerberg and Tesla and SpaceX CEO, Elon MuskManuel Orbegozo | Chip Somodevilla | ReutersElon 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 ceeding 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-fit with Sam Altman and others in 2015.When Musk floated his posal to buy OpenAI in February, he was incensed that the company and Altman, OpenAI's CEO, were pushing to transform the into a for-fit 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-fit company.In its counter claims, OpenAI has alleged that Musk and xAI's "sham bid" harmed its 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 the bid.In a statement to the court published Thursday, OpenAI said that when Musk and xAI were trying to form a conium of investors to finance a takeover, they apached Zuckerberg with a letter of intent and asked " potential financing arrangements or investments."Neither Zuckerberg nor Meta signed the LOI, the filing said

A Meta spokesperson declined to

Marc Toberoff, Musk's attorney in the case, didn't respond to a request for .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 reers 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.WATCH: How Sam Altman is tackling a growing threat to the future of OpenAI: Elon Muskwatch now3:0803:08How Sam Altman is tackling a growing threat to the future of OpenAI: Elon MuskWorldwide Exchange