Elon Musk has cast doubt on Donald Trump’s $500 billion AI project by questioning whether it has enough financial backing.
“They don’t actually have the money,” the MAGA billionaire wrote on X in a rare public dig at Trump just hours after the president made a big announcement about the privately funded initiative.
“SoftBank has well under $10B secured. I have that on good authority,” added the world’s richest man, referencing SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son, one of the three tech bosses behind the project.
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Musk foe Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, and Oracle Chairman Larry Ellison were also in the Roosevelt Room at the White House on Tuesday to announce the “Stargate” deal they promised would create more than 100,000 American jobs and even use artificial intelligence to find cures for cancer.
Musk attached his claim to a post by Altman’s OpenAI setting out the specifics of the deal following its presidential launch.
The remarks suggest Musk was putting his tech rivals on notice that he topped the pecking order in the tech bro oligarchy supporting the new administration.
He famously fell out with ChatGPT’s Altman, once calling him “Swindly Sam” on his X social media platform. They co-founded OpenAI in 2015, and Musk has been critical of Altman since departing three years later, questioning the ethical direction of the for-profit company and Altman’s leadership.
Trump appeared excited at the possibilities of the new sci-fi franchise while making the announcement with the three tech CEOs, who say they are investing $100 billion “immediately” and another $400 billion over the next few years to build up the nation’s AI infrastructure.
Altman talked about AI’s potential for curing cancer, and Ellison said a major data plant was already being built in Texas.
Son will chair “Stargate,” and his Softbank company will be fiscally responsible for the project. OpenAI is slated to handle operations.
In a statement, OpenAI said the “initial equity funders” are SoftBank, OpenAI, Oracle, and MGX.
It also said that Arm, Microsoft, NVIDIA, Oracle, and OpenAI are the “key initial technology partners.”
“All of us look forward to continuing to build and develop AI—and in particular AGI—for the benefit of all of humanity. We believe that this new step is critical on the path, and will enable creative people to figure out how to use AI to elevate humanity,” the statement adds.
