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On Tuesday, President Trump announced a new $500 billion initiative to build artificial intelligence infrastructure in the United States. Within hours, entrepreneur Elon Musk publicly mocked the plan, saying that the founding organizations don’t have enough money to make the initiative a reality.
What is the Stargate AI Initiative?
The Stargate Project is a new joint venture that is meant to secure the United State’s position as the leader of artificial intelligence. The initial founding equity partners are four major technology companies: SoftBank, OpenAI, Oracle, and MGX. According to a press release from OpenAI, SoftBank and OpenAI are the lead partners of the initiative. OpenAI will oversee operational responsibility and SoftBank will oversee financial responsibility. The press says that $100 billion will be deployed immediately, and that the first AI center is already being built in Texas.
The initiative was unveiled at the White House on Tuesday, with President Trump standing next to executives from the tech companies. The newly sworn in president called the initiative “tremendous” and “monumental,” and also claimed that it was “the largest AI infrastructure project by far in history.”
Musk Mocks New AI Initiative on X
Later that day, Musk took to his own social media platform, X, to criticize the Stargate project. He replied to a post from the OpenAI about the initiative, commenting, “They don’t actually have the money.” He later replied to his own comments. “SoftBank has well under $10B secured,” he wrote. “I have that on good authority.”
This is the first time that Musk has publicly criticized a Trump-led initiative since the Tesla founder was named the head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Musk has said that DOGE plans to cut up to $2 billion in government spending. Musk has reportedly irked some people within the president’s close circle due to his unconventional behavior, but it remains to be seen whether his public clapback will affect his relationship with Trump.
Musk’s Personal History with OpenAI
Musk has history with OpenAI, one of the co-leaders of The Stargate Project: Musk actually cofounded OpenAI with current CEO Sam Altman. Musk left the organization later on, and now he and Altman seem to have a contentious relationship. Musk actually started his own AI company, xAI, to compete with OpenAI.
Altman originally responded to Musk on X with a conciliatory tone. “I genuinely respect your accomplishments and think you are the most inspiring entrepreneur of our time,” he wrote, but followed it up by responding more sharply to Musk’s SoftBank post, stating the claim is “wrong, as you surely know” and asking “want to come visit the first site already under way?” Musk did not respond to any of Altman’s replies.
Read our review of X’s own AI chatbot, Grok, and see how it compares to OpenAI’s ChatGPT.