Elon Musk talks to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman stargate President Donald Trump’s touted artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure project is the latest feud between the two tech billionaires, a feud that began on OpenAI’s board and is now testing Musk’s take on the new president Influence.

Trump said on Tuesday that he would invest up to $500 billion in a joint venture through a new partnership between ChatGPT maker OpenAI and Oracle and SoftBank.

The new entity, Stargate, has begun building the data centers and power generation facilities needed to further develop the rapidly developing artificial intelligence technology.

Trump declared it a “resounding declaration of confidence in America’s potential” under his new administration, with initial private investment of $100 billion and the potential to reach five times that amount.

But Musk, a close adviser to Trump who bankrolled his campaign and now leads a government cost-cutting program, questioned the value of the investment hours later.

“They literally have no money,” Musk wrote on his social media platform X. “SoftBank has received far less than $10B in funding. I have full authority for that.”

Altman responded on Wednesday that Musk was “wrong and you definitely know that” and invited Musk to visit the first site already under construction in Texas.

“This is great for the country. I realize what’s good for the country isn’t always what’s best for your company, but in your new role, I hope you’ll put (America) first Bit,” Altman wrote, using an American flag emoji to represent the United States.

Behind the grudges

The public conflict over Stargate is part of a years-long feud between Musk and Altman that began with a boardroom rivalry over who should run OpenAI, which the two co-founded.

Musk, an early investor and board member of OpenAI, sued the artificial intelligence company last year, accusing it of betraying its founding purpose as a nonprofit research lab to benefit the public good rather than pursue profits.

Musk has since escalated the dispute, adding new claims and asking for a court order blocking OpenAI’s plans to more fully transform into a for-profit business. A hearing is scheduled for early February in California federal court.

The world’s richest man, whose companies include Tesla, SpaceX and X, last year founded his own rival artificial intelligence company, xAI, which is building its own big data center in Memphis, Tennessee. Musk said it faces unfair competition from OpenAI and its close business partner Microsoft, which provides the vast computing resources needed to build artificial intelligence systems such as ChatGPT.

When did Stargate begin?

Technology news outlet The Information first reported on an OpenAI data center project called Stargate in March 2024, indicating that the project had been in the works long before Trump announced it.

Another company, Crusoe Energy Systems, announced in July that it was building a large “purpose-designed artificial intelligence data center” at a site operated by energy technology company Lancium outside Abilene, Texas. Crusoe and Lancium said in a joint statement at the time that the project was “backed by billions of dollars in investment,” but did not name its backers.

AI technology requires large amounts of electricity to build and operate, and both companies said the project will be powered by renewable energy sources such as nearby solar farms, which Lancium CEO Michael McNamara said way that will “provide the greatest amount of power.” green energy at the lowest possible cost.” Crusoe said it will own and develop the facility.

It’s unclear how and when the project became the first phase of the Stargate investment Trump revealed. Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison said Tuesday that the Abilene project is the first of about 10 data center buildings currently under construction, and that number could expand to 20.

Where is Microsoft?

Microsoft, which was absent from Trump’s press conference on Tuesday, has long backed OpenAI with billions of dollars of investment and enabled its data centers to be used to build the models behind ChatGPT and other generative AI tools.

Microsoft said this week that it is also investing in the Stargate project, but issued a statement noting that its OpenAI partnership will “evolve” in a way that allows OpenAI to “build additional capabilities, primarily for model research and training.”

In an interview with CNBC on Wednesday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella spoke about the company’s own when asked about Musk’s comments on the Stargate deal. The US$80 billion plan aims to build a global artificial intelligence infrastructure, of which US$50 billion has been invested in the United States.

“Listen, all I know is that I’m happy with my $80 billion,” Nadella said with a laugh.