In brief: What do you do if you're the richest person in the world and want to take over OpenAI? Try to get the third-richest person in the world to help. According to court filings, Elon Musk was willing to put aside his differences with the man he once offered to fight in a cage match to take control of the ChatGPT maker. But Zuckerberg wasn't interested.
In February, Musk led a team of investors in making an unsolicited $97.4 billion bid to acquire the nonprofit that controls OpenAI. The group claimed a takeover would put OpenAI's focus back on open-source AI designed to help the world, which was the original goal.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman declined the offer and jokingly offered to "buy twitter for $9.74 billion."
Swindler
– Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 10, 2025
In a court filing on Thursday, OpenAI said Musk and his xAI company spoke to Zuckerberg about "potential financing arrangements or investments" in Altman's firm, but neither Zuckerberg nor Meta signed a letter of intent to join the investment team.
The revelation comes as part of a lawsuit that Musk filed against OpenAI last year over its attempt to become a for-profit company. The firm abandoned these plans in May, allowing the nonprofit to remain in control as it became a public benefit corporation.
OpenAI noted that Meta has been "spending heavily" when it comes to building its own AI products, including millions on hiring experts in the field. But it was reported this week that the company has paused its hiring and is splitting its superintelligence team just two months after its formation.
OpenAI asked the court to compel Meta to hand over documents related to the communications with Musk. The company says these documents should be directly obtained from Musk and any requested from the Facebook parent "are not relevant to this action."
UFC president Dana White spoke to Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg about their cage fight and says they're 'dead serious'
– Culture Crave 🍿 (@CultureCrave) June 22, 2023
"This would be the biggest fight in the history of the world"
PPV would cost $100 and all proceeds would go to charity pic.twitter.com/tF9UQy1pfr
Musk isn't known for having a lot of friends, and the ones he does have he often falls out with publicly – much like he did with Donald Trump. His relationship with Zuckerberg hasn't been as tumultuous as some others, but the pair appeared ready to take part in a cage match in 2023. But much like the Musk vs Putin fight, it never happened.
Elon Musk wanted Zuckerberg's help to take over OpenAI, court filings reveal
