Elon Musk and Sam Altman exchanged barbs on social media Wednesday after the OpenAI boss took center stage at the White House to unveil his ambitious $500 billion “Stargate” AI infrastructure project. dollars.
Alongside Oracle Executive Chairman Larry Ellison and Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son, Altman discussed a joint venture to build advanced data centers in Texas that will power advanced AI systems in a Oval Office press conference Tuesday.
However, Musk immediately denounced the project – even as President Trump called the plans, which allegedly include an initial investment of $100 billion that could reach five times that amount, a “resounding statement of confidence in the potential of ‘America’.
“They don’t really have any money,” Musk wrote on X in response to an OpenAI article.
“SoftBank got way less than $10 billion. I have it on good authority,” Musk added, without providing further details.
Altman fired back, responding on X that Musk’s claim was off base.
“False, as I’m sure you know,” Altman said. “Want to come and visit the first construction site already underway? It’s great for the country. I realize that what’s great for the country isn’t always what’s optimal for your businesses, but in your new role, I hope you put (America) first.”
OpenAI declined to comment. Oracle and Softbank did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
A source close to Softbank refuted Musk’s claims, noting that the investment giant had $24 billion in cash on its balance sheet as of last September and an additional $140 billion in liquid securities that could be used to finance projects if necessary.
The social media feud is the latest in a long-running feud between the two billionaires, who run rival AI companies and are vying to influence efforts to regulate the nascent technology.
Trump recently leaned on Musk as a key advisor and named him to head the new Department of Government Effectiveness, or DOGE.
Asked in December about Musk’s increasingly close relationship with Trump, Altman said it “would be profoundly un-American to use political power, to the extent that Elon has it, to harm your competitors and advantage your own businesses.”
The OpenAI CEO himself attempted to cozy up to Trump at the White House event on Tuesday, telling the president that the three companies “wouldn’t be able to do this without you.” Altman said Stargate could “create hundreds of thousands of jobs” in the United States.
“We will see diseases cured at an unprecedented rate. We will be amazed at how quickly we cure this cancer and that – as well as heart disease,” Altman said, repeating that AI would “cure diseases at a very rapid rate.”
Meanwhile, Musk is currently suing Altman, OpenAI, Microsoft and billionaire Reid Hoffman in an effort to prevent the creator of ChatGPT from becoming a for-profit entity.
As The Post reported, Musk recently won a key victory in the legal battle after the Justice Department and the FTC sided with one of the main arguments in his lawsuit.
Musk co-founded OpenAI as a nonprofit in 2015, but later fell out with its executives after disagreements with Altman over how it should be structured.
Elsewhere, Musk is also at the center of ongoing feuds over the future of Chinese-owned TikTok.
The app was briefly banned over the weekend as Congressional law requiring its Chinese parent company ByteDance took effect, but Trump issued a 75-day executive order delaying its enforcement so TikTok could seek a U.S. buyer.
On Tuesday, Trump said he was open to Musk or Oracle’s Ellison buying TikTok. Musk already owns the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.
“I would be if (Musk) wanted to buy it, yes,” Trump told reporters. “I wish Larry would buy it too.”
Wedbush analyst Dan Ives pointed out that Musk and Ellison are likely favorites among a growing group of investors likely to buy TikTok.
Oracle, led by Ellison, was notably part of a joint bid with Walmart to buy the app during a previous effort to ban it in 2020, but the deal ultimately fell through. Oracle is also a cloud computing partner for TikTok.
Trump has called for the United States to own 50% of TikTok in a joint venture intended to ease national security concerns over Chinese ownership of the app. However, the exact details of his proposal remain unclear.
As of now, TikTok is still not available in the app stores run by Google, Apple, Amazon, and Microsoft. Service providers face massive fines under Congressional law if they allow access to the app.
