Elon Musk Sought Mark Zuckerberg’s Backing In $97.4 Billion OpenAI Takeover Bid, Court Filings Show

Elon Musk attempted to recruit Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg for his unsolicited $97.4 billion bid to take over OpenAI earlier this year, according to The Wall Street Journal. A Musk-led investor group offered to buy the nonprofit that controls OpenAI in February as part of his legal fight with the company he co-founded with Sam Altman. OpenAI said in a court filing that Musk had contacted Zuckerberg about “potential financing arrangements or investments." The filing said it was unclear how Musk communicated with Zuckerberg, and neither he nor Meta signed a letter of intent or joined the takeover bid. Meta told the court there was no evidence its representatives coordinated with Musk on the OpenAI takeover bid. Both Meta and OpenAI declined to comment, and Musk did not respond to requests for comment. The filing comes as Musk continues lawsuits against OpenAI, disputes its ties with Microsoft, and clashes with Apple over App Store treatment of his Grok chatbot.