Elon Musk is clashing with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman over President Donald Trump’s latest touted Stargate artificial intelligence infrastructure project. in a quarrel between the two tech billionaires who started on the OpenAI board and are currently testing Musk’s influence with the new president.
Trump on Tuesday discussed a joint venture investing up to $500 billion as part of a new partnership formed by OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, alongside Oracle and SoftBank.
Trump said it was a “resounding statement of confidence in America’s potential” under his new administration, with an initial private investment of $100 billion that could grow to five times that sum.
But Musk, a close Trump adviser who helped finance his campaign and is now leading a government cost-cutting initiative, questioned the value of that investment hours later.
“They don’t really have any money,” Musk wrote on his social platform X. “SoftBank got way less than $10 billion. I have that on good authority.
Altman responded Wednesday by saying Musk was “wrong, as I’m sure you know” and inviting Musk to come visit the first site in Texas already under construction.
“This is great for the country. I realize that what is great for the country is not always what is optimal for your businesses, but in your new role, I hope you will prioritize ( America),” Altman wrote: using an American flag emoji to represent America.
Behind the quarrel
The public conflict 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 artificial intelligence company last year alleging that it had betrayed its founding purposes as a nonprofit research laboratory benefiting the public good rather than seeking profits.
Musk has since escalated the dispute, adding new claims and seeking a court order that would end the conflict. OpenAI projects to more fully transform into a for-profit business. A hearing is scheduled for February in federal court in California.
The world’s richest man, whose companies include Tesla, SpaceX and X, last year launched his own rival AI company, xAI, which is building its own large data center in Memphis, Tennessee. Musk says he faces unfair competition from OpenAI and its close business partner Microsoft, which has provided the enormous computing resources needed to build AI systems such as ChatGPT.
When did Stargate start?
Tech media outlet The Information first reported on an OpenAI data center project called Stargate in March 2024, saying it was in the works long before Trump announced it.
Another company – Crusoe Energy Systems – announced in July that it was building a large “purpose-built AI data center” on the northwest edge of Abilene, Texas, at a site managed by the technology company Lancium energy. Crusoe and Lancium said in a joint statement at the time that the project was “backed by a multibillion-dollar investment,” but did not disclose their backers.
The AI technology requires huge amounts of electricity to build and operate and both companies said the project would be powered by renewable sources such as nearby solar farms, in a way that Michael said McNamara, CEO of Lancium, would “provide the maximum amount of green energy at the lowest level.” possible cost. » Crusoe said he would own and develop the facility.
It is unclear how and when this project became the first phase of the Stargate investment revealed by Trump. Abilene Mayor Weldon Hurt said construction began about nine months ago, but “we didn’t know it was going to be this big.” We thought it would be about a third of that size.
Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison said Tuesday that the Abilene project is the first of about a dozen data center buildings currently under construction and that number could expand to 20.
Hurt told The Associated Press that the region surrounding Abilene, a city of about 130,000, benefits from a multitude of energy sources, including oil, gas, solar and some of the “largest wind farms in the world”, although Trump has expressed his opposition to this proposal. wind energy this week by stop temporarily approval of wind projects on federal lands.
“We have the capacity to produce the energy needed for this market, which really means a lot to a city like Abilene,” Hurt said. “To have this opportunity here in West Central Texas, to have something like this to make Abilene substantial, we’re just excited.”
Where is Microsoft?
Microsoft, which has long supported OpenAI with billions of dollars in investments and enabling its data centers to be used to build the models behind ChatGPT and other generative AI tools, was absent from the press conference for Trump on Tuesday.
Microsoft is also a technology partner in Project Stargate, alongside chipmakers Nvidia and Arm, but released a statement saying its OpenAI partnership will “evolve” in a way that will allow OpenAI “to build additional capabilities, primarily for research and user training. models. »
Asked Wednesday 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 turned to the $80 billion plan his company to develop its global AI infrastructure, of which $50 billion is being spent. in the United States
“Look, all I know is I’m good for my $80 billion,” Nadella said with a laugh.
