Meta CEO, Mark Zuckerberg and Tesla and SpaceX CEO, Elon Musk
Manuel Orbegozo | Chip Somodevilla | Reuters
Elon Musk, the world’s richest particular person, asked Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to assist him finance a $97.4 billion takeover of OpenAI in early 2025, court docket filings on Thursday revealed.
The submitting is a part of a authorized case between Musk and OpenAI that was initiated final yr. The case is continuing in a federal court docket in Northern California, and a decide not too long ago mentioned OpenAI can transfer forward with counter claims towards 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 corporate and Altman, OpenAI’s CEO, have been pushing to rework the enterprise right into a for-profit entity. Altman and Musk, who have been longtime mates, have change into bitter adversaries since OpenAI’s emergence as a frontrunner in generative AI with billions of {dollars} in funding from Microsoft.
Musk began 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 cease OpenAI from changing to a for-profit firm.
In its counter claims, OpenAI has alleged that Musk and xAI’s “sham bid” harmed its enterprise and that Musk has engaged in “harassment” by way of litigation and assaults on social media and within the press.
As a part of its criticism, OpenAI has filed to subpoena Meta for communications between the corporate, its CEO and Musk concerning the bid.
In an announcement to the court docket printed Thursday, OpenAI mentioned that when Musk and xAI have been making an attempt to type a consortium of buyers 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 submitting mentioned.
A Meta spokesperson declined to remark. Marc Toberoff, Musk’s lawyer within the case, did not reply to a request for remark.
The assertion within the submitting mentioned 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 paperwork are overly burdensome, and that OpenAI ought to receive related communications from Musk and xAI, as an alternative.
WATCH: How Sam Altman is tackling a growing threat to the future of OpenAI: Elon Musk
