Elon Musk, the ‘first buddy’ to President Donald Trump, controversially went against his leader by claiming the $500 billion AI project the Republican plans on starting up doesn’t ‘actually have the money’.
The 78-year-old has now responded to Musk’s claim about Stargate – ‘the largest AI infrastructure project in history’, which has been backed by seven major companies, and supposedly a half a trillion dollar investment.
President Donald Trump speaks in the Roosevelt Room flanked by Masayoshi Son (2R), Chairman and CEO of SoftBank Group Corp, Larry Ellison (2L), Executive Charmain Oracle and Sam Altman (R), CEO of OpenAI (JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images)
But before we get into that, let’s just quickly explain what the project is.
Stargate will see the construction of data centers in the US that will power AI.
The buildout is currently underway in Texas, but other potential sites are being scouted across the country as ‘definitive agreements’ are finalized.
This infrastructure will ‘secure American leadership in AI,’ create ‘hundreds of thousands of American jobs’ and ‘generate massive economic benefit for the entire world,’ OpenAI – the company behind ChatGPT – claimed on its website.
“This project will not only support the re-industrialization of the United States but also provide a strategic capability to protect the national security of America and its allies,” it continued.
The three key players involved are Oracle CTO Larry Ellison, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, and SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son.
It was confirmed $100 billion of funding would be made available ‘immediately,’ with $500 billion to be invested in total by 2029.
The US is already a world-leader of artificial intelligence, and it appears Donald Trump is anxious to keep it that way.
“I’m going to help a lot through emergency declarations because we have an emergency,” he said.
Elon Musk has been critical of the AI project (ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images)
So what did Musk tweet?
The tech billionaire has been critical of the project because of a decade-long feud with OpenAI boss Altman, and so took to his social media platform Twitter, to post: “They don’t actually have the money.”
Referring to Stargate, before later adding: “SoftBank has well under $10B secured. I have that on good authority.”
While signing a series of executive orders in the Oval Office, Trump was asked about Musk’s criticisms.
When asked whether he was bothered by Musk’s words, Trump replied: “No, he hates one of the people in the deal.”
He added: “People in the deal are very, very smart people. But Elon – one of the people, he happens to hate. But I have certain hatreds of people, too.”
Seven major businesses are involved with the project so far, including three of the world’s biggest technology firms.
Japan’s SoftBank and United Arab Emirates AI investment arm MGX are among Stargate’s initial equity funders, alongside OpenAI and computer giant Oracle.
Meanwhile semiconductor company Arm joins Microsoft, NVIDIA, Oracle and OpenAI as Stargate’s key technology partners.
Oracle, NVIDIA and OpenAI will ‘closely collaborate to build and operate’ the project’s computing system, while Microsoft will help ‘train leading models and deliver great products and services’.
