Mark Zuckerberg and Snapchat | Sam Altman and Elon Musk
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Sam Altman texts Shivon Zilis
February 9, 2023
Sam Altman
BTW, good idea for me to tweet something nice about Elon? Have been meaning to do this after he DMd about not being in the photo from the first day of OpenAI. Just about how much I and others look up to him, how critical his early contributions to OpenAI are, etc.
[This document is from Musk v. Altman (2025).]
Further reading: Sam Altman's tweet: “society underestimates how much it owes elon for raising the collective ambition level at a time when optimism for the future was receding” (February 13, 2023)
Sam Altman emails Elon Musk
On Oct 18, 2015, at 11:36 AM, Sam Altman wrote:
Good seeing you a couple of weeks ago.
As discussed I think starting with a $100MM commitment (and leaving the time unspecified) is the way to go.
Everyone we discussed but Gates is committed to donating. Hope to have him locked down next week. I am going to sit down with Zuck, but I still think it’s probably too problematic given Facebook Al Research.
Two big new recruits that we expect to sign offer letters this week: John Schulman and Wojciech Zaremba.
Specific asks for you:
1) Can you donate $30MM over the next 5 years?
2) Can we call you an “advisor” but leave unspecified what you’ll do in detail and figure it out as we go?
3) Will you be on the Safety Board with me? I’d like it to eventually be 5 of us, adding the next 3 over the year or so. This will be the “second key” for releasing anything that could be dangerous.
Sam
On Mon, Oct 19, 2015 at 3:27 AM, Elon Musk wrote:
Let’s discuss governance. This is critical. I don’t want to fund something that goes in what turns out to be the wrong direction.
Btw, great move on the continuity fund!
From: Sam Altman
To: Elon Musk
Subject: Re: followup
Date: Mon, 19 Oct 2015 08:47:19 -0700
Happy to talk about it any time--very focused on getting this right!
Thanks--you were actually the main inspiration for that. We’ve had such a struggle getting our capital-intensive businesses funded (unless the founders were already rich from a previous startup) that we figured we should just do it ourselves.
[This document is from Musk v. Altman (2025).]
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Mark Zuckerberg messages Sheryl Sandberg about acquiring Snapchat and WhatsApp
October 26, 2013
Mark Zuckerberg
If things go well today and we move to negotiate all day tomorrow, it might be good for you to free up some time to spend with the founders in LA. I’ll keep you posted but just wanted to plant this seed.
Sheryl Sandberg
Happy to do it. Do you mean tomorrow or this week?
Mark Zuckerberg
lt would likely be tomorrow, but I’ll keep you posted.
Sheryl Sandberg
Great. I am in Palm Springs. I can go in the morning.
Sheryl Sandberg
Any update? How is it going?
Mark Zuckerberg
It went well. I will know more later tonight.
Mark Zuckerberg
Biggest issue is they don’t want to move to MPK.
Mark Zuckerberg
Price seems fine and may be lower than I thought, but we’ll see.
Sheryl Sandberg
I think they don’t need to move. We will have less influence and control – but we can make it work. Exciting!
Sheryl Sandberg
Should I plan on going tomorrow? Are they coming back to you? Can I call to hear more?
Mark Zuckerberg
I’m on the plane back now. (I’m getting dinner with the WhatsApp founder so didn’t want to cancel it, and may just fly back down to LA tomorrow morning.)
Mark Zuckerberg
[REDACTED] is going to get back to me later tonight after thinking through things.
Sheryl Sandberg
Any highlights to share?
Mark Zuckerberg
We still don’t have a real indication of how they’re feeling about our offer. He just messaged Amin saying he wanted the day to think about it, but still wants to talk to Chris. Amin and I might not go down tomorrow though.
Mark Zuckerberg
Amin and I decided to offer $3b for the company plus $1b in retention packages for them.
Mark Zuckerberg
They seemed happier with that than I’d expected from previous signals, but his latest messages make me wonder if they’re taking more time to think things through.
Sheryl Sandberg
My schedule for tomorrow – [REDACTED] and [REDACTED] are flying home at 900 am so I could stay done here. I would get to la around 1030 am.
Sheryl Sandberg
Knowing tonight would help get a car to do it
Mark Zuckerberg
My current assumption is you won’t have to do it, but I will let you know for certain by end of the evening.
Sheryl Sandberg
Happy to join if I can help.
Sheryl Sandberg
Even if I knew tomorrow am.
Mark Zuckerberg
I’ll send you a note confirming tonight.
Sheryl Sandberg
What’s app is better – so charm them at dinner!
Mark Zuckerberg
I’ll do my best!
Sheryl Sandberg
Success?
Mark Zuckerberg
WhatsApp is a longer term project. I think I’m making progress and we might have our chance in Q1. I’ve been working on this for almost two years now.
Mark Zuckerberg
For Snapchat, our shot is right now. They’re deciding between joining us and taking a big financing on the path to going public.
Sheryl Sandberg
Tomorrow?
Mark Zuckerberg
You don’t have to go. They’re taking the day to think about it and Chris is going to hang out with them. That’s probably enough.
Mark Zuckerberg
Thanks for offering.
[This document is from FTC v. Meta (2025).]
Previously: Mark Zuckerberg tries to buy WhatsApp (April 6, 2013)
Previously: Mark Zuckerberg tries to buy Snapchat (October 28, 2013)
Thanks for reading!
-Internal Tech Emails
Sent from my iPad
Two sociopaths confer
This article comes at the perfect time and it's so intresting to see these foundational exchanges, but I'm still trying to piece together what precisely made Facebook AI Research "too problematic" for initial OpenAI involvement.