Musk OpenAI’s $500 billion Stargate with Altman | Donald Trump news

Elon Musk feuds with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman Stargate The artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure project promoted by President Donald Trump is the latest in a spat between the two tech billionaires that began on the OpenAI board and is now testing Musk’s influence with the new president.

On Tuesday, Trump spoke about a joint venture with Oracle and SoftBank that will invest up to $500 billion through a new partnership formed by ChatGPT maker OpenAI.

The new entity, Stargate, is already starting to build the data centers and power generation needed to further develop the rapidly developing AI technology.

During his new administration, the Trump administration called it a “resounding declaration of faith in America’s potential,” which could reach five times that amount with an initial $100 billion in private investment.

But Musk, a close Trump adviser who helped fund his campaign and now leads a government spending-cutting initiative, questioned the value of the investment hours later.

“They don’t really have money,” Musk wrote on social media platform X. “SoftBank has over $10 billion in collateral. I have good authority.”

Altman responded Tuesday that Musk was “wrong, as you no doubt know,” and invited Musk to visit the first site under construction in Texas.

“(T)he great for this country. I understand that what is good for the country is not always optimal for your companies, but I hope that in your new role you will put (America) first,” Altman wrote, using a US flag emoji to represent America.

Behind the conflict

The public standoff over Stargate is part of a years-long dispute between Musk and Altman that began with a boardroom rivalry over who should run OpenAI, which both men helped found.

Musk, an early investor and board member of OpenAI, sued the AI ​​company last year, alleging that it betrayed its founding goals as a nonprofit research lab that benefits the public good rather than profit.

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

Last year, the world’s richest man, whose companies include Tesla, SpaceX and X, started rival AI company xAI to build its massive data center in Memphis, Tennessee. Musk says he faces unfair competition from his close business partner Microsoft, which provides the massive computing resources needed to build AI systems like OpenAI and ChatGPT.

When did stargate start?

Tech news outlet The Information first reported on an OpenAI data center project called Stargate in March 2024, suggesting it was in the works long before Trump announced it.

Another company – Crusoe Energy Systems – announced in July that it was building a large and “custom-designed artificial intelligence data center” on a site operated by energy technology company Lancium near Abilene, Texas. Crusoe and Lancium said in a joint statement at the time that the project was “backed by a multibillion-dollar 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 sources such as nearby solar farms, thus “providing the maximum amount of electricity,” according to Lancium CEO Michael McNamara. green energy at the lowest possible cost”. Crusoe said he would own and develop the facility.

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

Where is Microsoft?

Missing from Trump’s press conference on Tuesday was Microsoft, which has long supported OpenAI with billions of dollars in investment, allowing its data centers to be used to build the models behind ChatGPT and other generative artificial intelligence tools.

Microsoft said this week that it is also investing in the Stargate project, but noted that the OpenAI partnership will “evolve” to allow OpenAI to “provide additional capabilities, primarily for research and training of models.”

Asked about Musk’s comments on the Stargate deal during an interview with CNBC at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella on Tuesday focused on his company’s own $80 billion plan to build a $50 billion global AI infrastructure. in the United States.

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