Elon Musk reportedly reached out to rival tech titan Mark Zuckerberg in an effort to secure support for his $97.4 billion bid for OpenAI earlier this year. According to a court filing on Thursday, Meta’s CEO ultimately decided not to join Musk’s consortium.
OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, noted in its filing that Musk had communicated with Zuckerberg about potential financing arrangements or investments tied to the bid. The filing also reveals that Musk disclosed these discussions during sworn interrogations.
Musk, whose AI venture xAI competes directly with OpenAI, was unavailable for comment and xAI did not respond to inquiries outside business hours.
OpenAI Pushes for Meta Documents
As part of the ongoing legal battle, OpenAI has requested that a federal judge order Meta to provide documents and communications related to any OpenAI bid, including those concerning any actual or potential restructuring or recapitalization of OpenAI.
OpenAI said, pointing out that Musk and Meta are among its most significant competitors.
“Meta’s communications with other bidders, or internal communications, including those reflecting discussions with Musk or other bidders, would also shed light on the motivations for the bid,”
Meta, in its own court filing, argued that OpenAI should obtain relevant documents directly from Musk and his AI startup, and requested that the judge deny OpenAI’s motion. Meta’s own communications concerning OpenAI’s restructuring or recapitalization (even as narrowed) are not relevant to this action, the company added.
In that ruling the latest, U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers said this August, that Musk would have to face claims made against him by OpenAI that he sought to damage the company through press statements, social media posts, legal claims, and what OpenAI called a sham bid for OpenAI assets.
The roots of the dispute date back to last year, when Musk sued OpenAI and its top boss, Sam Altman, in court over the company’s move to for-profit. In April 2025, OpenAI filed a countersuit against Musk. A jury trial is set for spring 2026.
This latest filing just adds spice to the already quite dramatic and one of the most public legal battles in the AI space- a great rivalry between two of the finest names and the stakes surrounding the control of OpenAI.
TechWorldNews Perspective
If Elon Musk had managed to bring Mark Zuckerberg on board for the $97.4-billion bid for OpenAI, today the AI field might have been a different story. An amalgamation of Musk’s bold, high-risk front with the big bucks and already established AI infrastructure of Zuckerberg and Meta could potentially have formed a juggernaut in the AI race. Conversely, such a synergy could have upset the balance in favor of a corporation controlling OpenAI’s technology and, quite simply, may have emphasized another set of ethical and competitive dilemmas.
But, since the bid fell through, that is itself a reminder that, however prominent, the likes of Musk have limitations, and, at least for the time being, OpenAI remains free. This isn’t merely a corporate tussle; it’s a minor window into the high-stakes arena of AI innovation, where the acts of a few can send ripples across industries and generate an impact on the technological future for everyone.
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