Elon Musk had attempted to rope in Mark Zuckerberg for the $97.4 billion bid to take over Sam Altman’s OpenAI, but the Meta founder did not come on board, a court filing showed on Thursday.

The move can be called surprising, given that it came just a year and a half after the two tech billionaires locked horns in public and even geared up to go against each other in a cage fight.

The court filing, made by the ChatGPT maker before the Northern District of California federal court, came as part of the ongoing legal battle between Musk and OpenAI.

OpenAI said Musk identified Mark Zuckerberg as one of the people with whom he had communicated about potentially financing a deal to purchase the ChatGPT maker.

OpenAI alleged that the Tesla CEO had disclosed about his communications with Zuckerberg during sworn interrogations.

What did OpenAI say in the court filing?

The Sam Altman-led company, which is best known for its AI chatbot ChatGPT, has sought directions from a federal judge to order Meta Platforms to produce documents and any form of communication related to OpenAI.

It has also sought for orders for Meta to disclose documents “concerning any actual or potential restructuring or recapitalization of OpenAI.”

“Meta’s communications with other bidders, or internal communications, including those reflecting discussions with Musk or other bidders, would also shed light on the motivations for the bid,” OpenAI said in the court filing while calling Musk and Meta two of its most significant competitors.

Neither Zuckerberg nor Meta signed the letter of intent or participated in the $97.4 billion bid, OpenAI said in the filing.

OpenAI had in February formally rejected Musk’s offer.

Meta responds

In the same court filing, Meta has asked the court to deny OpenAI’s subpoena.

It said OpenAI should seek any relevant documents directly from Musk and his AI startup xAI, which is a competitor of ChatGPT.

“Meta’s own communications concerning OpenAI’s restructuring or recapitalization (even as narrowed) are not relevant to this action,” Meta noted in the court filing.

“To the extent OpenAI seeks Meta documents that plaintiffs do not have, such documents are not relevant to this action,” it added.

In February this year, Elon Musk and some other investors had made an unsolicited offer to take control of the non-profit holding company that controls OpenAI.

Sam Altman had quickly rejected the offer saying on X, “no thank you but we will buy twitter for $9.74 billion if you want”.