Elon Musk, the founder and CEO of ‘X’ and xAI, is trying to get ahead in the AI race by eliminating the competition. Elon had asked his competitor, Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, to join his bid to take over both of their primary competitor, OpenAI. Meta and xAI partnering could have led to the end of AI race and would have eliminated the competition, Sam Altman’s OpenAI, if Elon Musk’s efforts had been successful.
Elon Musk And Mark Zuckerberg Buying OpenAI?
According to a report by CNBC 18, xAI founder Elon Musk asked his fellow Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to join him. This, in layman’s terms, means Musk asking Meta to join a 97.4 billion bid to buy out OpenAI. The court filings in the ongoing legal battle between OpenAI and Elon Musk led to the discovery of this potential collaboration. In a statement to the court published Thursday, OpenAI said that when Musk and xAI were trying to form a consortium of investors 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 filing said.
Elon Musk Proposal:
Elon Musk in the early months of 2025, had floated an idea to buy OpenAI, since he opposed both Sam Altman and OpenAI’s view of AI. He basically visualised that both OpenAI and Sam are working to transform the business into a for-profit entity. Altman and Musk, who were long-time friends, have become bitter adversaries since OpenAI’s emergence as a leader in generative AI with billions of dollars in funding from Microsoft.
Why did Elon offer to buy OpenAI?
Elon Musk started 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 stop OpenAI from converting to a for-profit company.
In its counterclaims, OpenAI has alleged that Musk and xAI’s “sham bid” harmed its business and that Musk has engaged in “harassment” through litigation and attacks on social media and in the press. As part of its complaint, OpenAI has filed to subpoena Meta for communications between the company, its CEO and Musk about the bid.
Meta Guilty Too?
Additionally, Musk and Meta have also been allegedly charged by OpenAI. The statement in the filing said 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.” A Meta spokesperson declined to comment. Marc Toberoff, Musk’s attorney in the case, didn’t respond to a request for comment.
