The world's richest man and a renowned new-tech mogul are engaged in a battle of words over funds for an ambitious Donald-Trump-endorsed AI endeavour. Sam Altman, the chief executive at OpenAI, hit back at Tesla CEO Elon Musk on X after the latter poked fun at the recently launched The Stargate Project, which has the ChatGPT parent as one of the key functionaries.
US President Donald Trump had announced Stargate on Wednesday with an outlay of billions of dollars and much fanfare to develop AI infrastructure for OpenAI and create jobs.
Musk quipped on the project, "They don't actually have the money." Elon Musk commented on OpenAI's announcement for the project on the social media platform. "SoftBank has well under $10 billion secured. I have that on good authority."
Altman responded to Musk's jibe with a sarcastic invitation. "Want to come visit the first site already under way?"
"I realise what is great for the country isn't always what's optimal for your companies, but in your new role I hope you'll mostly put (America flag) first."
Altman was referring to Trump including Musk in his administration as the head of Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, tasked with lowering costs for the government.
Announcing The Stargate Project
January 21, 2025
The Stargate Project is a new company which intends to invest $500 billion over the next four years building new AI infrastructure for OpenAI in the United States. We will begin deploying $100 billion immediately. This infrastructure will secure…This followed a series of posts and reposts by Musk, about OpenAI and its CEO allegedly funding 'anti-Trump' and 'anti-American' propaganda. One of his posts was a repost from Altman's account in 2016, which said, "Back to work tomorrow on a new project to stop Trump."
In his latest post on X, Altman said, "Watching @potus (President of the United States account) more carefully recently has really changed my perspective on him (I wish I had done more of my own thinking and definitely fell in the npc trap). I'm not going to agree with him on everything, but I think he will be incredible for the country in many ways!"
Stargate, the project at the centre of the Altman-Musk spat, was announced by Trump on his first full day in office. He revealed that the project aims to invest at least $500 billion into AI infrastructure in the US — with $100 billion to be deployed immediately — creating over 100,000 American jobs almost in the near-term.
According to OpenAI's announcement, the initial equity funders in Stargate are SoftBank, OpenAI, Oracle, and MGX. SoftBank and OpenAI are the lead partners for Stargate, with SoftBank having financial responsibility and OpenAI having operational responsibility. Masayoshi Son will be the chairman.
"Arm, Microsoft, Nvidia, Oracle, and OpenAI are the key initial technology partners. The buildout is currently underway, starting in Texas, and we are evaluating potential sites across the country for more campuses as we finalise definitive agreements," the announcement said.
As part of Stargate, Oracle, Nvidia, and OpenAI will closely collaborate to build and operate this computing system. "This builds on a deep collaboration between OpenAI and Nvidia, going back to 2016 and a newer partnership between OpenAI and Oracle," it said.
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