Elon Musk threw shade at OpenAI's Sam Altman on Tuesday after the latter took center stage at the White House to announce Stargate, an ambitious $500 billion AI infrastructure project. Ta.
Appearing alongside Oracle Executive Chairman Larry Ellison and SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son, Altman discussed a joint venture to build an advanced data center in Texas to power advanced AI systems.
President Trump called the plan, which reportedly includes an initial investment of $100 billion with the potential to grow five times that amount, “an unwavering declaration of confidence in America's potential.” But Musk quickly cast a shadow on the project.
“They don't really have any money.” Mr. Musk wrote about X Reply to OpenAI post
“SoftBank has secured funding of well under $10 billion. I know that on good authority,” Musk added, without providing further details.
Representatives for OpenAI, Oracle and SoftBank did not immediately respond to The Post's requests for comment.
The event was the highest-profile interaction between Mr. Altman and Mr. Trump to date. Mr. Trump recently tapped Mr. Musk as a key advisor and appointed him to lead the newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
Altman praised Trump at a White House event, saying the three companies “can't do this without you.” OpenAI's boss said Stargate could “create hundreds of thousands of jobs” in the US.
“We're going to see diseases heal at an unprecedented rate. We're going to be amazed at how quickly we're curing this cancer and that cancer and heart disease,” Altman said. , reiterated that AI would “cure diseases at rapid speed.”
Mr. Altman has had an ongoing public feud with Mr. Musk. Musk co-founded OpenAI as a nonprofit organization in 2015, but later fell out with leaders over disagreements over the organization's form.
Asked in December about the close relationship between Musk and Trump, Altman said, “It's hard to use political power like Elon to benefit your own business to the detriment of your competitors.'' It's very un-American.”
Musk is currently suing OpenAI, Microsoft, and billionaire Reid Hoffman to block the ChatGPT creator's plans to become a commercial entity.
As the Post reported, Musk recently scored a key victory in his legal battle after the Justice Department and FTC upheld one of the key claims in his lawsuit.
Musk and Altman's sparring comes amid an ongoing debate over how artificial intelligence should be regulated under the Trump administration.
Musk is also a central figure in the ongoing controversy over the future of Chinese-owned TikTok.
The app was temporarily banned over the weekend after a law in Congress requiring Chinese parent company ByteDance went into effect, but President Trump issued an executive order delaying enforcement for 75 days so TikTok could find a U.S. buyer. I put it out.
On Tuesday, Trump said he was open to the acquisition of TikTok by Musk and Oracle's Ellison. Musk already owns social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.
“If so [Musk] Yes, I wanted to buy it,” Trump told reporters. “I'd like Larry to buy one too.”
Wedbush analyst Dan Ives said Musk and Ellison are the top candidates as part of a growing field of investors who could buy TikTok.
It's worth noting that Ellison's Oracle had been involved in a joint bid with Walmart to acquire the app during its previous effort to ban it in 2020, but the deal was not finalized. It ended in failure. Oracle is also TikTok's cloud computing partner.
President Trump has called for the United States to own 50% of TikTok as part of a joint venture aimed at alleviating national security concerns about China's ownership of the app. However, the exact details of his proposal remain unclear.
For now, TikTok is not yet available in app stores run by Google, Apple, Amazon, and Microsoft. Service providers face huge fines under Parliamentary Law if they allow access to the app.
