Elon Musk Tried to Recruit Mark Zuckerberg to Buy OpenAI Six Months Ago for Less Than $100B: Filings

Background: Musk and OpenAI’s Complicated History

Elon Musk co-founded OpenAI in 2015, envisioning it as a nonprofit dedicated to ensuring artificial intelligence develops in ways that benefit humanity. However, he parted ways with the organization in 2018 after clashing with other board members over its direction. Since then, OpenAI has transitioned into a capped-profit model and built a multibillion-dollar partnership with Microsoft. Today, the company is at the forefront of AI development, with products like ChatGPT and DALL·E reshaping how humans interact with machines.

Musk has been openly critical of OpenAI in recent years, accusing it of abandoning its founding principles and aligning too closely with corporate interests. At the same time, he has doubled down on his own AI ambitions, launching xAI in 2023 with the aim of creating safer, more transparent AI systems. Against this backdrop, the idea of Musk attempting to buy OpenAI outright — and enlisting Zuckerberg in the effort — adds an ironic twist to his long-standing feud with the company.

The Approach to Zuckerberg

According to filings, Musk approached Zuckerberg in early 2025, proposing a partnership to acquire OpenAI. The suggested price tag was less than $100 billion — a figure that, while massive, is significantly lower than some of the valuations circulating in financial circles. Industry analysts estimate OpenAI’s worth could exceed $150 billion given its rapid revenue growth, widespread adoption, and critical role in the AI arms race.

Details of Zuckerberg’s response remain unclear, but insiders suggest he declined to participate. For Meta, which is heavily invested in its own AI initiatives — including advanced recommendation algorithms, generative AI tools, and the open-source LLaMA models — joining forces with Musk may have seemed both risky and strategically unnecessary.

Why Musk Wanted Zuckerberg On Board

So why would Musk, a fierce competitor of Zuckerberg, seek his involvement in such a monumental deal? The filings hint at multiple motivations:

• Financial Scale: Acquiring OpenAI would require vast resources, even at a sub-$100 billion price point. Partnering with Meta could make the transaction more feasible.
• Regulatory Cover: A joint acquisition by two major players might have been positioned as an industry collaboration rather than a monopolistic takeover, potentially smoothing regulatory approval.
• Strategic Leverage: Aligning with Meta could have given Musk greater bargaining power against OpenAI’s current partners, particularly Microsoft.

Despite their rivalry, Musk may have calculated that Zuckerberg’s resources and AI expertise could complement his own ambitions, especially in countering Microsoft’s dominant position in OpenAI’s ecosystem.

Zuckerberg’s Likely Calculations

For Zuckerberg, however, joining Musk’s bid likely presented more risks than rewards. Meta has staked its future on integrating AI into its social media platforms, virtual reality products, and advertising infrastructure. By open-sourcing its LLaMA language models, Meta has positioned itself as a leader in transparent and accessible AI development. Partnering with Musk in a hostile takeover of OpenAI could have undermined that image and triggered backlash from regulators and the public.

Furthermore, Zuckerberg and Musk have a history of personal and professional clashes. From public feuds over AI safety to disputes about space technology after a SpaceX rocket explosion destroyed a Facebook satellite in 2016, their relationship has been anything but smooth. Trusting Musk with a joint acquisition of OpenAI may have simply been a bridge too far for Zuckerberg.

The revelation of Musk’s approach to Zuckerberg has sparked intense debate across the tech industry. Some analysts view it as evidence of Musk’s relentless drive to shape the future of AI, even if it means making unlikely alliances. Others interpret it as a sign of desperation, given his rocky history with OpenAI and the rapid rise of competitors.

For regulators, the idea of Musk and Zuckerberg teaming up to acquire OpenAI raises red flags about market concentration and control over foundational AI technologies. Antitrust authorities in the U.S. and Europe are already scrutinizing big tech companies’ dominance in AI, and a joint bid for OpenAI would almost certainly have triggered extensive investigations.

The Bigger Picture: The AI Arms Race

This episode underscores the high stakes of the global AI arms race. With trillions of dollars in potential value at stake, tech giants are scrambling to secure leadership in the field. OpenAI’s breakthroughs with ChatGPT, GPT-4, and subsequent models have positioned it as a crown jewel of the AI ecosystem. Controlling OpenAI would mean controlling one of the most powerful engines of technological change in the 21st century.

Musk’s failed attempt to recruit Zuckerberg highlights both the competitive intensity and the uneasy alliances forming in this race. While Musk pursues xAI, Meta pushes forward with LLaMA, Microsoft doubles down on OpenAI, and Google accelerates its Gemini models, the landscape is becoming increasingly fragmented. Each player is betting on a different strategy, but all share the goal of dominating the AI future.

For OpenAI itself, the attempted takeover illustrates just how valuable and contested its position has become. Even as it faces lawsuits, ethical debates, and technical challenges, the company remains the focal point of global attention. The knowledge that Musk a co-founder turned critic  was willing to mount a $100 billion bid underscores the strategic importance of OpenAI’s assets.

In the near term, the filings may bolster OpenAI’s bargaining power with investors and partners. However, they also highlight the vulnerability of being at the center of a power struggle among tech titans. Questions about governance, independence, and alignment with its original mission will only intensify as competitors circle.

As the filings continue to reverberate, several key questions remain unanswered:

• Will Musk continue to pursue OpenAI through other avenues, or double down on xAI as his alternative vision?
• How will Zuckerberg’s refusal shape Meta’s AI roadmap, particularly in its competition with Microsoft and Google?
• What role will regulators play if another attempt to acquire OpenAI surfaces?

One thing is certain: the race for AI dominance is accelerating, and the alliances and rivalries among tech giants will shape not just the industry but society as a whole. Musk’s overture to Zuckerberg may have failed, but it reveals the extraordinary lengths to which the world’s most powerful CEOs are willing to go in pursuit of AI supremacy.

The disclosure that Elon Musk tried to recruit Mark Zuckerberg to buy OpenAI for less than $100 billion is a remarkable insight into the secretive maneuvers of Silicon Valley’s elite. It highlights both the massive financial stakes of the AI revolution and the personal dynamics between two of the industry’s most high-profile figures. While the deal never materialized, the filings provide a rare glimpse into how Musk and Zuckerberg view the future of AI — and the extraordinary strategies they are willing to consider to shape it.

As AI continues to transform industries, economies, and everyday life, the battles among tech giants will only grow fiercer. Whether through acquisitions, partnerships, or independent innovation, the pursuit of AI leadership promises to remain one of the defining narratives of the 21st century.