The top line
It took less than two days for Elon Musk to express his displeasure with President Donald Trump, as the world’s richest man questioned Trump’s biggest business announcement ever, Musk’s artificial intelligence company. There was a $500 billion deal to bolster the
Trump, the left and Musk in November.
Key facts
Musk took to his X social media platform to poke holes in the “Stargate” AI infrastructure deal that Trump announced at the White House on Tuesday, a private joint venture funded by US technology companies OpenAI and Oracle, Japan-based SoftBank and Emirates-based MGX. investment firms.
The project was described The $100 billion in initial funding, with plans to invest a total of $500 billion over the next four years, was hailed by Trump as “a monumental move and a “great declaration of confidence in America’s ability under a new president.” achieved, Trump said at a press conference Tuesday, while billionaire Sam Altman was joined by OpenAI CEO Larry Ellison and SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son.
But Musk later claimed In response to OpenAI’s press release on the project that “they don’t actually have the money,” on X, he added that he has “on good authority” that “SoftBank has less than $10B secured.”
A person familiar with Stargate’s funding denied Musk’s claim, noting to Forbes that the project has equity from its four founding partners and other co-investors, as well as equity from outside sources, including debt fundraising. $100 billion ready to go through.
Altman hit back at Musk on Wednesday, calling X Musk’s funding claim “false, as you surely know” and saying “what’s good for the country isn’t always what’s best for your companies.” , but I hope you put most of 🇺🇸 first in your new role,” referring to Musk’s advice to Trump, nominally the head of the “Department of Government Efficiency” commission.
Tangent
From Altman’s point of view, Musk’s sharp criticism of Trump’s big announcement was highly unusual for someone so close to the president – MSNBC contributor Sam Stein described “A senior official in the White House publicly declaring that the president’s big announcement from the day before yesterday was some kind of gimmick” is “definitely the first” reaction of its kind in Stein’s memory.
Important quote
Stargate was a big win for OpenAI as it competes with xAI and other big tech names in the pursuit of artificial general intelligence (AGI), UBS analyst Karl Keirstead said in a Wednesday note to clients: “OpenAI is in a race against Elon Musk. Backed by xAI, Google, Meta and Anthropic (funded by Amazon) among others” and “This puts OpenAI in a better long-term position to win the model wars,” Keirstead wrote.
Key background
Musk’s pushback on Stargate likely traces back to his bitter feud with Altman and Chet GPT generative AI powerhouse OpenAI, which Musk founded as a nonprofit in 2015. . to leave In 2018, finally launched a direct competitor to OpenAI in his xAI startup and The case OpenAI last year over a dispute over the company Shift Towards profit taking. Billionaire AI leaders have resorted to public name-calling in their feud with Musk. Condemnation In an October interview with Tucker Carlson and Altman, Altman was described as “someone who is not trustworthy.” to blame “Clearly a bully,” Musk said in an interview with the Free Press in December. There is a third.
Surprising fact
Musk’s Stargate criticism comes despite the involvement of his close ally, mentor and former Tesla board member Ellison. “Larry Ellison is awesome,” Musk Pushed In November, responding to a video in which Ellison called Musk his “friend.”
Stargate-linked stocks rise
Shares of companies involved in AI projects rallied on Wednesday. SoftBank’s stock rose 11% in Tokyo trading, while Oracle gained 7% and Stargate technology partners Nvidia and Arm Holdings (majority owned by SoftBank) gained 5% and 15%, respectively, by mid-afternoon.
Forbes Valuations
Stargate’s feud involves some of the richest people on the planet. Musk is the richest person ($430 billion), Ellison is the third richest ($231 billion), Beta is the 52nd richest ($34 billion), Trump is the 540th richest ($6 billion) and Altman is the 2,548th richest ($1.1 billion). . billion).
Further reading
