On his second day in office, Trump announced a privately funded initiative to develop AI infrastructure in the United States. Known as ‘Stargate,’ the project involves OpenAI, Oracle, and SoftBank and is “the largest AI infrastructure project in history.” Executives from all three companies were present at the White House announcement.
ALSO READ| Elon Musk clashes with OpenAI’s Sam Altman over $500 billion AI project Donald Trump announced
Musk questions Stargate funding, Altman defends they ‘surely’ can
Notably absent from the partnership is xAI, Musk’s AI venture. Just hours after the announcement, Musk publicly nuked the project’s financial underpinnings. “They don’t actually have the money,” Musk wrote on his X (formerly Twitter) late Tuesday, responding to an OpenAI post claiming that the venture would “begin deploying $100 billion immediately.”
“SoftBank has well under $10B secured. I have that on good authority,” he added. The comments stand out because DOGE operates under the leadership of Trump supporters Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy who aim to decrease federal spending.
In response, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman pushed back, calling, “wrong, as you surely know. want to come visit the first site already under way?”
“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 🇺🇸 first.”
Since Trump’s election win in November many tech executives want to work with him more actively now than they did during his first presidential period. The Stargate initiative represents Big Tech’s first attempt to work with Trump’s administration.
ALSO READ| Vivek Ramaswamy’s exit from Musk-led DOGE was over his H-1b visa remarks: Report
On Tuesday, Trump sounded upbeat about Stargate, revealing that it would generate employment opportunities while building AGI skills and drawing big monetary investments through the next four years.
When asked by CNBC on Wednesday about Musk’s criticisms, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella opted not to confirm or refute Musk’s claims directly. “All I know is, I’m good for my $80 billion,” Nadella said.
