Elon Musk, currently the richest man in the world, asked Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg if he was willing to help him finance $97.4 billion to take over ChatGPT maker OpenAI earlier this year.
The request surfaced from a recent court filing as part of Elon Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI, where the multi-billionaire floated a proposal in February this year when Musk claimed Altman was looking to turn the company into a for-profit entity. He even sued OpenAI, alleging a breach of contract and tried to stop the company from turning into a profit-centric business.
In a statement to the court, OpenAI said Elon Musk and xAI have been trying to form a sort of consortium of investors to finance a takeover of the company, and that he even approached Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg with a letter of intent “about potential financing arrangements or investments.” But neither Zuckerberg nor Meta signed the letter of intent. At the time of writing, it is still unclear if such documents exist.
Lawyers working for the Sam Altman-led company also sought a court order that would ask Meta to produce any documents and communications related to “any actual or potential restructuring or recapitalization of OpenAI.” In its response, Meta said that OpenAI’s requests are too much of a burden and that it should instead ask Elon Musk and xAI about the same.
Details about Musk’s talk with Zuckerberg to take over OpenAI are still unknown, but the idea of the two rivals putting aside their differences and forming a partnership does give us an idea of how the two billionaires may feel threatened by OpenAI.
Altman and Musk have been long-time friends, but turned into bitter adversaries after OpenAI emerged as a major player in the AI space, with Microsoft pouring in billions of dollars in funding. As a result of their fallout, Musk founded xAI in 2023 as a direct competitor to OpenAI.
In the last few months, Meta has ramped up its effort to poach AI researchers from competitors, with Sam Altman saying that the Mark Zuckerberg-led tech giant was offering $100 million signing bonus to some employees. In response to Altman’s statement, Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth replied that the OpenAI CEO “is just being dishonest here.”
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