Billionaire Mogul Sam Altman Spars With Elon Musk One Day After Standing With Trump In White House
Sam Altman sparred Wednesday with Elon Musk over funding for a Trump-backed AI infrastructure project one day after he stood with Trump in the White House.
Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, sparred Wednesday with Elon Musk over funding for a Trump-backed AI infrastructure project one day after he stood with the president in the White House to announce the project.
Musk, replying to an OpenAI tweet about the initial round of funding for the project, wrote âThey donât actually have the money.â
He claimed that Soft Bank, one of the three companies who had a representative next to Trump during his Tuesday announcement, did not have even one tenth of the proposed initial funding.
âSoftBank has well under $10B secured. I have that on good authority,â Musk tweeted early Wednesday morning.
Hours later, Altman responded.
âWrong, 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 isnât always whatâs optimal for your companies, but in your new role I hope youâll mostly put America first.â
Altman was one of three billionaires to join Trump in the White House on Tuesday to announce The Stargate Project, alongside Oracle CEO Larry Ellison and Soft Bank CEO Masayoshi Son.
WASHINGTON, DC â JANUARY 21: U.S. President Donald Trump speaks in the Roosevelt Room of the White House while SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son, Oracle CTO Larry Ellison, and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman look on on January 21, 2025 in Washington, DC. Trump is expected to announce investment in artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure. Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
The project, Trump announced, would be âthe largest AI infrastructure, by far, in history.â Intended to invest at least $500 billion into AI infrastructure, Stargate should create over 100,000 jobs âalmost immediately,â Trump announced.
But Musk, arguably Trumpâs top surrogate during his presidential campaign, was clearly not convinced.
His quip was far from the first time heâs sent a shot at Altman, the 39-year-old wunderkind who Trump credited as the âleading expertâ in AI.
Musk was originally a co-founder of OpenAI, joining forces with Altman and fellow Trump-backer Peter Thiel to establish the AI startup in 2015. But his relationship with Altman and the company soured over plans to take the company public. Since leaving the board of directors in 2018, Musk has been highly critical of Altman and OpenAI, calling the company âevilâ and referring to Altman as âLittle Finger,â a notoriously unscrupulous character from the HBO drama âGame of Thronesâ known for plotting and scheming.
Trumpâs decision to leave Musk out of the first major technology project of his second administration is notable, especially considering Trump tapped one of Muskâs most public archnemeses as its architect.
Musk, who reportedly spent over a quarter of a billion dollars to help Trump secure the presidential election, has his own AI startup called xAI. (RELATED: Elon Musk Reportedly Makes âSizableâ Donation To Pro-Trump Super PAC)
Musk is also actively suing Altmanâs OpenAI.
Altman was a significant backer of Democrats, giving over $1 million to Democrats, including Joe Biden, who he gave over $200,000 to, according to FEC filings. He donated at least $6,600 to Democratic PAC ActBlue as recently as June 2024.
Musk has also donated a significant sum to Democrats, though he donated exclusively to Republicans and GOP-aligned groups in 2024, FEC filings show.