The Stargate project was personally introduced by Donald Trump, as part of the grand plans of his administration for the development of artificial intelligence — however, this did not prevent the main supporter of the newly elected president, Elon Musk, from publicly criticizing the program.
Stargate involves the construction of a network of data centers for AI in the USA with initial investments of $100 billion and approximately $500 billion over the next four years. The program is led by OpenAI, Japanese conglomerate SoftBank and Oracle — with Sam Altman’s company responsible for operational activities, and SoftBank taking on the financial side. Overall, the list of partners includes several key technology companies — Microsoft, Arm, Nvidia among them, but Elon Musk’s xAI is not in this list.
In a series of comments under the announcement of the project on X, the billionaire publicly trashed it, noting that the aforementioned companies “actually don’t have the money for it”, and Sam Altman is “just a fraud.”
“SoftBank has less than $10 billion. I have information from reliable sources,” Musk later added.
Altman quickly responded to the opponent’s accusations:
“Stargate is a great project for the country. I understand that what’s good for the country is not always good for your companies. But I hope that in your new position you will put the USA first,” wrote the head of OpenAI, hinting at Musk’s new role in the so-called efficiency department.
Later Sam added that he sincerely respects Musk’s achievements and considers him “an inspiring entrepreneur.”
Musk and OpenAI have a long history of conflicts, which started from the moment the startup was founded. Elon was one of the first investors of the company, however, he left because the proposal to merge OpenAI with Tesla under his leadership did not resonate with the co-founders. Later, the billionaire regularly criticized the AI startup for not adhering to its initial goal (developing artificial intelligence for the benefit of humanity) and focusing on making money, and also resorted to lawsuits.
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