Musk's lawyers try to stop OpenAI obtaining bid documents from Meta, filing shows

(Reuters) -Lawyers for Elon Musk have asked a U.S. judge to block ChatGPT-owner OpenAI from obtaining documents from Meta Platforms related to a previous $97.4 billion bid for OpenAI's assets, a court filing showed.

OpenAI said last week Musk had tried to enlist his rival Mark Zuckerberg in his bid for the AI company earlier this year, but that the Meta boss did not come on board.

OpenAI then requested the judge to order Meta to produce documents and communications related to any bid for the company. Meta asked the judge to deny the request, saying it should seek relevant documents directly from Musk and his AI startup xAI.

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

However, lawyers for OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman asked 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."

"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 wrote.

Earlier in August, U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers ruled that Musk must face OpenAI's claims that the billionaire, through press statements, social media posts, legal claims and "a sham bid for OpenAI's assets," had attempted to harm the AI startup.

Tesla boss Musk sued Microsoft-backed OpenAI and Altman last year over the company's transition to a for-profit model, after which OpenAI counter-sued Musk in April this year.

A jury trial has been scheduled for spring 2026.

(Reporting by Shubham Kalia in Bengaluru;Editing by Helen Popper)