Musk trolls Trump’s $500B AI mega plan
January 22, 2025
in News
Tech billionaire Elon Musk poured cold water Wednesday on a landmark half-a-trillion dollar artificial intelligence (AI) initiative trumpeted by U.S. President Donald Trump.
His criticism marks an early break between Musk, one of Trump’s closest advisers during the presidential transition, and the Republican leader, underscoring the potential for rifts on key policy issues in Trump’s broad coalition.
Trump announced Tuesday that several technology giants, including OpenAI, Oracle and MGX, plus Japanese investment company SoftBank, would invest about $500 billion in building data centers in the U.S. over four years. He touted the project, known as Stargate, as “the largest AI infrastructure project by far in history.”
“It’s big money and high-quality people,” Trump said, calling the initiative “a resounding declaration of confidence in America’s potential” at the start of his new administration.
But Musk responded skeptically to an OpenAI press release that announced funding for the initiative, including an initial investment of $100 billion.
“They don’t actually have the money,” Musk jabbed.
In a follow-up post on his platform X, the social media mogul added, “SoftBank has well under $10B secured. I have that on good authority.”
Musk has long been at odds with Sam Altman, with whom he co-founded OpenAI, the company that created AI chatbot ChatGPT. Musk, who resigned from OpenAI in 2018, has since derided Altman as “Swindly Sam,” while Altman has called Musk a “bully.”
Construction on one of the project’s data centers has already begun in Texas, according to Oracle Chairman Larry Ellison, who was in the White House to launch the project with Trump, Altman and SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son.
“We wouldn’t be able to do this without you, Mr. President,” Altman said Tuesday at a joint press conference. |
