Billionaire Fight Club: Musk and Altman Spar Over Trump’s AI Plan
Elon Musk and Sam Altman duke it out in White House power struggle.
Michael Kovac/Getty Images for Vanity Fair
Elon Musk and Sam Altman are sparring over Donald Trump’s futuristic $500 billion artificial intelligence project.
Musk landed the first blow by saying the tech firms behind the artificial intelligence infrastructure initiative didn’t have enough cash.
“They don’t actually have the money,” wrote Musk in a comment on X linked to OpenAI’s announcement about the deal.
i genuinely respect your accomplishments and think you are the most inspiring entrepreneur of our time
— Sam Altman (@sama) January 22, 2025
OpenAI CEO Altman played defence with a gentle jab that could be seen as a genuine compliment trying to defuse the tension—or a sarcastic slap to shut down Musk’s criticism.
“i genuinely respect your accomplishments and think you are the most inspiring entrepreneur of our time,” he responded.
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The world’s richest man went on to claim that “on good authority” SoftBank, the tech firm handling financing for the ‘Stargate’ company, only had “well under” $10 billion in funds secured, considerably less than the $100 billion investment that OpenAI claimed was ready “immediately.”
And then Altman went for the knock-out, counter punching on X with: “wrong, as you surely know.
“want to come visit the first site already under way?
“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 America first.”
wrong, as you surely know.
— Sam Altman (@sama) January 22, 2025
want to come visit the first site already under way?
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 🇺🇸 first.
It was the most public spat yet between the tech titans, and leaves Donald Trump stuck in the middle given his relationship with both billionaires.
On Tuesday, Altman, together with SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son and Oracle Chairman Larry Ellison, were in the Roosevelt Room at the White House to announce the ‘Stargate’ project with Trump.
Another $400 million is supposed to be fed into the project over the next four years. A data center is already being built in Texas and Trump has high hopes for the technology he hopes will find cures for cancer.
It’s the latest scuffle between Musk and Altman, the co-founders of OpenAI, who fell out after Musk left the company, unhappy that it wasn’t sticking to what he considered to be its altruistic goals.
In previous bouts, Musk has tagged Altman “Swindly Sam” and he is suing OpenAI in an attempt to prevent ChatGPT from being a for-profit business.
Altman said in December that he believed it would be “profoundly un-American” for Musk to use his power “to hurt your competitors and advantage your own businesses.”
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