Elon Musk's lawyers try to stop OpenAI from getting bid documents from Meta: report

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Elon Musk's lawyers asked a U.S. judge to block OpenAI from getting documents from Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/META]) related to a previous $97.4B bid for OpenAI's assets, Reuters reported, citing a court filing.

Last week, it was reported that Elon Musk, the billionaire CEO of Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/TSLA]) and xAI, had approached [https://seekingalpha.com/news/4488208-elon-musk-openai-bid-meta-mark-zuckerberg] Meta's CEO Mark Zuckerberg to join a $97.4B takeover bid of OpenAI earlier this year. Musk had discussed a letter of intent with Zuckerberg, including "potential financing arrangements or investments," OpenAI disclosed in a filing. However, neither Zuckerberg nor Meta signed the LOI.

The ChatGPT creator then requested the judge to order Meta to disclose documents and communications related to any bid for the company. Meta asked the judge to deny the request, noting that it should seek relevant documents directly from Musk and his AI startup xAI, the report noted [https://www.reuters.com/business/musks-lawyers-try-stop-openai-obtaining-bid-documents-meta-filing-shows-2025-08-27/].

In a filing on Tuesday, Musk's lawyers said OpenAI had already received documents related to the bid from him and xAI. They noted that OpenAI's "expansive discovery" was irrelevant to the current phase of the trial, the report added.

However, attorneys for OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman requested the judge to reject Musk's assertions and said they were not seeking "expansive" and "sprawling" discovery and that the relevant requests for documents were targeted and "span weeks, not years," according to the report.

Meta, OpenAI and xAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Seeking Alpha.

"Plaintiffs have sought to explain the absence of bid-related documents by representing that their communications were primarily oral. If that is true, then the need for depositions - of Musk, an xAI representative, and other co-bidders - is even more acute," they said in the filing.

Earlier this month, it was reported [https://seekingalpha.com/news/4484414-judge-rules-musk-must-face-openais-claims-of-years-long-harassment-campaign] that a federal judge ruled that Musk must face claims by OpenAI alleging that his public and legal attacks on the company amount to a “years-long harassment campaign.”

Musk sued Microsoft-backed (NASDAQ:MSFT [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/MSFT]) OpenAI and Altman last year for straying from its founding mission, after which OpenAI counter-sued [https://seekingalpha.com/news/4429971-chatgpt-maker-openai-countersues-elon-musk-for-relentless-harassment#hasComeFromMpArticle] Musk this year.

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