CNN
—
Shortly after President Donald Trump announced massive new AI infrastructure investments from the White House, his “first buddy” Elon Musk tried to destroy it.
“They don’t actually have the funds,” Musk wrote on his social media platform X. “SoftBank has secured far less than $10 billion in funding. I have it on good authority.”
President Trump said the investment will create a new company called Stargate to grow artificial intelligence infrastructure in the United States. Leaders from SoftBank, Open AI, and Oracle stood alongside President Trump during the announcement. The companies have invested a total of $100 billion to get the project off the ground and plan to pour up to $500 billion into Stargate over the next few years.
The comments are a notable takedown of a major White House project by one of President Trump’s closest allies. In a sign of how involved Musk was in the early days of his administration, Musk was in the Oval Office on Tuesday when Trump signed a pardon for Ross William Ulbricht, the founder of the dark web market Silk Road. said. Musk also deployed senior staff from his SpaceX and X companies to secure the release of convicted January 6 rioters after President Trump signed a full pardon. was.
But perhaps it’s no surprise that Musk is pursuing an OpenAI initiative. Musk is currently involved in a lawsuit with OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman, who was at the White House for the announcement. Musk, who said he “doesn’t trust” Altman, claims in his lawsuit that ChatGPT has abandoned its original nonprofit mission by reserving some of its cutting-edge AI technology for private customers. did.
The companies involved in Stargate have not disclosed how they will contribute the funds, but they do not necessarily need to deposit money in a bank to support their funding, but rather may raise debt or contract with other equity investors. There is a possibility that
Altman responded directly to Musk’s claims about X, writing, “As you know, that’s false.” Why not visit the first site already in progress? This is great for the country. I understand that what’s great for your country isn’t necessarily what’s best for your company, but I want you to put (America) first in your new role. ”
Sources familiar with Stargate called Musk’s claims untrue.
Sources said SoftBank had $24.3 billion in cash on its balance sheet in its latest earnings and resisted taking on more debt to finance projects as a way to access more capital. He pointed out that there was no.
MGX has $100 billion in capital commitments, Oracle has $11 billion in cash on its balance sheet and OpenAI has more than $10 billion from a recent venture capital round, the person said. He pointed out that it was announced.
“All I know is that I’m OK with spending $80 billion,” Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, which is working with OpenAI on Stargate, told CNBC on Wednesday. Ta.