Musk Has Doubts About Huge Project Trump Announced

President Trump was joined by top execs from OpenAI, Oracle, and Softbank Tuesday night when he announced Stargate, a project to invest up to $500 billion in artificial intelligence infrastructure—but a tech titan closer to Trump's inner circle soon poured cold water on the idea. "They don't actually have the money," Musk wrote in a post on X responding to OpenAI's announcement that it would "begin deploying $100 billion immediately." Musk later added: "SoftBank has well under $10B secured. I have that on good authority."

The remarks offered "a glimpse into the sometimes awkward dynamic between the new president and Musk," as the Wall Street Journal puts it. There have long been tensions between Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, who praised Musk in a response to his first post, saying, "i genuinely respect your accomplishments and think you are the most inspiring entrepreneur of our time." In response to the Softbank remark, however, Altman told Musk he was "wrong, as you surely know," adding, "this is great for the country. i realize 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 (American flag emoji) first."

Trump described Stargate as "the largest AI infrastructure project by far in history" and said it would create 100,000 jobs over four years, the BBC reports. Microsoft, which announced earlier this month that it plans to spend $80 billion on data centers, was listed as one of OpenAI's technology partners. When CNBC asked him about Musk's remarks, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said, "Look, all I know is, I'm good for my $80 billion. (More Elon Musk stories.)