Tesla and xAI CEO Elon Musk earlier this year offered Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg a stake in a $97.4 billion buyout of OpenAI, court filings show, Seeking Alpha writes.

According to the documents, Musk discussed with Zuckerberg a letter of intent, including "possible financing or investment schemes." However, neither Zuckerberg nor Meta signed the document, the publication writes.

A spokesperson for Meta declined to comment, and Musk's lawyer did not respond to CNBC's request for comment.

Attorneys for OpenAI filed a motion to subpoena Meta, demanding all correspondence between the company, Zuckerberg and Musk about the possible deal. In response, Meta said that OpenAI's request was too vague and "unduly burdensome," noting that the necessary materials could be requested directly from Musk and xAI.

Context

The proceedings are part of Musk's lawsuit against OpenAI, which challenges the Microsoft-backed company's plans to transform its for-profit division into a public benefit corporation.

The Tesla founder was one of OpenAI's co-founders and largest investor at the startup, but left the board in 2018 due to a conflict. Musk launched his own AI startup xAI, but it has yet to catch up with developer ChatGPT. In 2024, the billionaire sued OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman. Musk claims he was misled - allegedly OpenAI originally approached him for funding for a non-profit organization that would develop AI for the benefit of humanity, but ended up focusing on making a profit.

In February, Musk made an offer to OpenAI to buy back control for $97.4 billion. OpenAI declined. The ChatGPT developer is currently in negotiations, which could result in a $500 billion valuation.

Against this background, the head of Meta, Mark Zuckerberg, announced his intention to invest hundreds of billions of dollars in the development of artificial intelligence and the necessary infrastructure. To accelerate progress, the company is actively poaching specialists from OpenAI, Google and Apple, offering them access to maximum computing power. Although Meta already has more than two dozen data centers and is building new ones - including a 37-hectare facility in Louisiana - some of these facilities will not be operational for several years.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor

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