Court filing reveals Elon Musk asked Zuckerberg to join xAI's bid to acquire OpenAI at 80% discount
Aug 22, 2025
Key Points
- Court filings reveal Musk approached Zuckerberg about financing xAI's $97 billion bid to acquire OpenAI at an 80% discount to its current valuation.
- Meta declined to join the acquisition consortium or sign a letter of intent, and denies any coordination with Musk on the bid.
- An Musk-Zuckerberg partnership would have faced antitrust scrutiny, though Musk may have framed Meta's role as diversification rather than horizontal consolidation.
Summary
Court filings in OpenAI's legal dispute with Elon Musk reveal that Musk approached Mark Zuckerberg about financing or investing in xAI's bid to acquire OpenAI at $97 billion, roughly 80% below OpenAI's current valuation. Meta declined to join or sign a letter of intent.
The filing confirms what had been rumored: a consortium led by Musk made a formal offer to buy the nonprofit that controls OpenAI. The bid came in February, timed to Musk's ongoing legal battle against OpenAI, the company he co-founded with Sam Altman. Meta denied any coordination with Musk on the bid. Meta and OpenAI both declined further comment, and Musk has not responded to the filing.
A partnership between Musk and Zuckerberg would have been unusual. The two tech billionaires have clashed publicly over Twitter versus Threads and proposed an MMA fight that never happened. Both are heavily invested in the race to build frontier AI models.
From an antitrust perspective, the deal would have faced complications if Meta had joined as an investor or acquirer. Meta is primarily an advertising business with no direct exposure to nonprofits or research institutions. Musk may have framed the arrangement as diversification rather than horizontal consolidation to sidestep regulatory objection. The filing suggests this framing was at least technically explored as part of the financing structure.