OpenAI is pressing Meta to hand over documents it believes may reveal communications between Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk over a failed $97 billion takeover attempt.
This is tied to Musk’s ongoing lawsuit against OpenAI, in which he accuses the company of abandoning its founding mission.
Court filings made public on Thursday show that OpenAI subpoenaed Meta in June, demanding records related to discussions of Musk’s unsolicited bid.
According to OpenAI’s lawyers, evidence reveals Musk and Zuckerberg exchanged messages regarding financing or investment support for the deal through Musk’s AI venture, xAI. OpenAI rejected the offer earlier this year.
Meta resisted the subpoena in July and has now asked the court to block OpenAI’s request, arguing that Musk and xAI themselves should supply any relevant documents.
A Meta spokesperson pointed to OpenAI’s own filing, which stated that neither Meta nor Zuckerberg signed Musk’s letter of intent to acquire the company. Meta has declined further comment.
The issue traces back to OpenAI’s restructuring into a public benefit corporation, a change Musk insists breaches the company’s original non-profit mission.
OpenAI, however, says the move is necessary to raise funding and preserve its influence in the industry. The court has already rejected Musk’s call for an injunction against the restructuring, ruling that he had not demonstrated sufficient grounds for success.
Behind the case is an increasingly fierce rivalry in the artificial intelligence sector. Meta, which has been struggling to keep pace with OpenAI and Anthropic, has poured billions into its AI ambitions.
In 2025 alone, the company invested $14 billion in Scale AI and launched Meta Superintelligence Labs to build systems aimed at surpassing human intelligence.
The company has also aggressively recruited talent from its competitors. In mid-2025, at least eight senior researchers left OpenAI for Meta, including Shengjia Zhao, a co-creator of ChatGPT now heading Meta Superintelligence Labs.
Others such as Lucas Beyer, Alexander Kolesnikov, and Xiaohua Zhai joined from OpenAI’s Zurich office, all previously linked with Google DeepMind. Reports show Zuckerberg has offered compensation packages exceeding $100 million to lure top AI scientists.
Meta’s goal, however, has faced setbacks. Its flagship models underperformed earlier this year, forcing Zuckerberg to personally intervene with a new strategy.
Court documents from a separate case revealed that Meta executives were fixated on building a system stronger than OpenAI’s GPT-4 but fell short of that goal.
The intersection of Musk and Zuckerberg recalls their history of public clashes, including Musk’s challenge to a cage fight that never materialised. The filings suggest the two billionaires may have set differences aside in pursuit of a common aim: challenging OpenAI’s dominance.
OpenAI has accused Musk of mounting “a relentless harassment campaign” designed to disrupt its operations and strengthen xAI’s position.
