Trump Proves Musk Is Still ‘First Buddy’ After Torching Mega AI Deal
Billionaire DOGE director Elon Musk has lost favor among President Donald Trump’s allies after publicly trashing a $500 billion artificial intelligence venture.
Unveiled by President Trump on Tuesday as “Stargate,” the venture aims to supercharge the country’s artificial intelligence infrastructure with the help of tech giants OpenAI, Softbank and Oracle—at no cost to the government, according to Trump.
However, in a flurry of X posts on Wednesday, Musk torched the terms of the deal and attacked his billionaire rival Sam Altman, OpenAI’s CEO, as a “liar.”
About the tech giants fronting the cost of the venture, Musk wrote, “They don’t actually have the money.” He added, “SoftBank has well under $10B secured ... I have that on good authority.”
Altman responded directly to him on X, “Wrong, as you surely know. want to come visit the first site already under way? this is great for the country.”
In the aftermath, Politico reported that staffers close to Trump felt he had “very much” overstepped the mark by publicly opposing the AI deal after Trump called it “tremendous” and “monumental” just a day before.
“It’s clear he has abused the proximity to the president,” a Trump ally told Politico. “The problem is the president doesn’t have any leverage over him and Elon gives zero f---s.”
However, in a retort to Musk’s trashing, Trump seemed to blame the billionaire’s behavior solely on his bad blood with Altman.
“The government’s not putting up anything. They’re are putting up money. They’re very rich people, so I hope they do,” said Trump, about OpenAI, Softbank and Oracle. “And, I mean, Elon doesn’t like one of those people.”
He added, “He hates one of the people in the deal,” seemingly referring to Altman.
Musk and Altman’s feud dates back to his split from OpenAI, a company he co-founded with Altman in 2015. Musk has also signed on to a lawsuit alleging that OpenAI, under Altman, has forgone it’s nonprofit mission to secure Altman a generous pay day.
Altman literally testified to Congress that he wouldn’t get OpenAI compensation and now he wants $10 billion! What a liar. https://t.co/YpHvcm0WZa
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 23, 2025
Musk referenced the latter claim by tweeting a news hit about the company ditching nonprofit control.
“Altman literally testified to Congress that he wouldn’t get OpenAI compensation and now he wants $10 billion!” wrote Musk. “What a liar.”
