Elon Musk clashes with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman over… Stargate The artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure project promoted by President Donald Trump is the latest in a feud between the two tech billionaires that began on OpenAI’s board and is now testing Musk’s influence over the new president.

Trump on Tuesday talked about a joint venture that would invest up to $500 billion through a new partnership formed by OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, along with Oracle and SoftBank.

The new entity, Stargate, has already begun building the data centers and generating the electricity needed to further develop the rapidly evolving AI technology.

Trump declared it a “resounding declaration of confidence in America’s potential” under his new administration, with an initial private investment of $100 billion that could reach five times that amount.

But Musk, a close Trump adviser who helped fund his campaign and is now leading a government cost-cutting initiative, questioned the value of the investment hours later.

“They actually don’t have the money. SoftBank got a lot less than $10 billion. I take that on good authority,” Musk wrote on his social media platform

Altman responded on Wednesday by saying Musk was “wrong, as you certainly know” and invited Musk to visit the first Texas site already under construction.

“[T]He is great for the country. I realize that what’s great for the country isn’t always what’s best for your companies, but in your new role, I hope you put it mostly [America] First, Altman wrote, using an American flag emoji to represent America.

Behind the dispute

The public clash over Stargate is part of a years-long feud between Musk and Altman that began with a boardroom competition over who should run OpenAI, which the two men helped found.

Musk, an early investor in OpenAI and a board member, filed a lawsuit against the AI ​​company last year, alleging that it betrayed its founding goals as a nonprofit research laboratory that benefits the public good rather than pursuing profits.

Since then, Musk has escalated the dispute, adding new claims and seeking a court order that would halt OpenAI’s plans to turn itself into a fully for-profit company. A hearing is scheduled for early February in federal court in California.

The world’s richest man, whose companies include Tesla, SpaceX and X, last year created his own artificial intelligence competitor, xAI, which is building its own large data center in Memphis, Tennessee. Musk says he faces unfair competition from OpenAI and its close business partner Microsoft, which has provided it with the vast computing resources needed to build AI systems, such as ChatGPT.

When did Stargate start?

Tech news outlet The Information first reported on an OpenAI data center project called Stargate in March 2024, suggesting it was in the works long before Trump announced it.

Another company — Crusoe Energy Systems — announced last July that it was building a “large, purpose-built AI data center” outside Abilene, Texas, at a site operated by energy technology company Lancium. Crusoe and Lancium said in a joint statement at the time that the project was “backed by a multi-billion dollar investment” but did not reveal its backers.

The AI ​​technology requires huge amounts of electricity to build and operate, and the two companies said the project would be powered by renewable sources such as nearby solar farms, in a way that would, according to Lancium CEO Michael McNamara, “provide maximum energy.” Green energy at the lowest possible cost.” Crusoe said it would own and develop the facility.

It is not clear how and when this project became the first phase of the Stargate investment unveiled by Trump. The Abilene project is the first of about 10 data center buildings currently being built, and that number could grow to 20, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison said Tuesday.

Where is Microsoft?

Missing from Trump’s press conference on Tuesday was Microsoft, which has long backed OpenAI with billions of dollars in investments and enabling the use of its data centers to build the models behind ChatGPT and other generative AI tools.

Microsoft said this week that it is also investing in the Stargate project, but issued a statement noting that its OpenAI partnership will “evolve” in a way that enables OpenAI to “build additional capabilities, primarily for research and model training.”

Asked about Musk’s comments about the Stargate deal on Wednesday during an interview with CNBC at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella focused on his company’s $80 billion plan to build global AI infrastructure, of which $50 billion has already been spent. . In the United States.

“Look, all I know is I’m good for my $80 billion,” Nadella said with a laugh.