Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk's ongoing feud with OpenAI head Sam Altman played out on social media late Tuesday and continued into Wednesday in the wake of President Donald Trump's announcement of private sector investment of up to $500 billion to fund infrastructure for artificial intelligence.
Trump held a news conference Tuesday afternoon, announcing that Altman's OpenAI, SoftBank and Larry Ellison's Oracle are planning a joint venture called Stargate, to build data centers and other AI infrastructure in the U.S.
The Stargate project calls for $100 billion in initial investment and plans for up to $500 billion over the next four years to build AI infrastructure. SoftBank, OpenAI, Oracle, and MGX are the initial equity funders. Arm Holdings, Microsoft, Nvidia are technology partners. The project includes a data center already underway in Texas, according to the announcement.
Oracle Stock Surges As Trump Unveils Stargate AI Plan With OpenAI, SoftBank
Musk, Altman Back And Forth
Musk, a big Trump supporter and advisor, late Tuesday responded to an OpenAI post on X, formerly Twitter, about the Stargate project. The Tesla head claimed "they don't actually have the money" and that SoftBank has "well under" $10 billion secured.
"I have that on good authority," Musk wrote, with his first response coming at 11:35 pm EST.
Altman responded Wednesday, first that he "genuinely" respects Musk's "accomplishments" and that he believes Musk is "the most inspiring entrepreneur of our time."
The OpenAI chief then refuted Musk's claim that SoftBank has under $1o billion.
"Wrong, as you surely know. Want to come visit the first site already underway?" Altman wrote. "This is great for the country. I realize what is great for the country isn't always what's optimal for your companies, but in your new role I hope you'll mostly put (The U.S.) first."
Musk has been targeting Altman in the courts and publicly for months. The pair started OpenAI together nearly a decade ago as a nonprofit. Musk left OpenAI in 2018 and founded his own artificial intelligence company, xAI, in 2023.
The Tesla chief executive has claimed OpenAI broke promises to him and abandoned its founding purpose as a charity when it accepted billions from Microsoft starting in 2019.
In 2018, Elon Musk famously claimed that he had the funds to take Tesla private, when that wasn't the case. He later settled with the SEC over the "funding secured" tweet, stepping down as Tesla chairman.
Oracle stock surged 7.7% during market action on Wednesday, gapping above its 50-day line within a base. Meanwhile, the Altman-backed nuclear startup Oklo advanced 8.3%. Tesla stock edged down 0.5% to 421.76.
Arm Holdings stock surged nearly 16%, racing through a buy zone. Nvidia stock and Microsoft rose about 4%, within consolidations.
Please follow Kit Norton on X @KitNorton for more coverage.
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