Recently surfaced court documents reveal that Elon Musk secretly asked Mark Zuckerberg to join a bid for OpenAI's intellectual property assets.
These consultations took place in early February 2025, before the Musk consortium publicly launched its unsolicited $97.4 billion takeover bid for OpenAI.
Despite years of open hostility—and amidst a tense legal battle—Musk's message suggested the possibility of temporary cooperation against OpenAI and Sam Altman.
According to reports in released court documents, Zuckerberg appeared open to discussing this idea and agreed to a follow-up conversation.
However, there is no evidence that Meta officially joined Musk's bid, invested in it, or subsequently signed any letter of intent publicly.
Undermining speculation that an alliance was indeed forming between Musk and Meta, OpenAI subsequently informed the court that Zuckerberg had never joined it.
Musk's broader objective is to challenge OpenAI's transition to a for-profit structure; he recently strongly opposed this in court.
This agreement also made it clear how the competition in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is driving even long-standing technological rivals toward unexpected conversations today.
The OpenAI board rejected Musk's proposal, stating that the company was not for sale; immediately thereafter, it dismissed the bid as insincere.
Ultimately, Zuckerberg's response featured prominently in the news; however, as Musk moves forward without Meta, the battle with OpenAI remains unresolved for the time being.