Trump had a phone conversation with OpenAI’s Sam Altman last week

Before he officially became president, Donald Trump held a lengthy conversation with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman on Friday to discuss the potential of artificial intelligence and the need to develop the technology in the US, CNBC has learned.

During the conversation, Trump was particularly animated about building artificial intelligence here instead of developing it in China, and what that could mean for job creation and a sign of U.S. confidence in his administration, according to a person familiar with the matter who asked not to to be named because the conversation was private.

After Trump’s inauguration on Monday, the president quickly got to work highlighting the importance of artificial intelligence. On Tuesday, he announced a joint venture with OpenAI, Oracle and Softbank invest billions of dollars AI infrastructure in the US OpenAI’s participation is significant because Altman is in the middle of a heated legal battle with Tesla CEO Elon Muska major financial backer of Trump’s 2024 campaign and an advisor who previously co-founded OpenAI in 2015 as a non-profit organization.

Musk trim quickly newly announced project, called Stargate, writing in a post on Xu that “they don’t really have the money” to back up their pledge to invest $500 billion. He added that he knew “based on reliable sources” that SoftBank “has well under $10 billion insured.”

Altman responded Wednesday morning, writing on X that while Musk is “the most inspiring entrepreneur of our time,” his claims are “wrong, as I’m sure you know.” Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said in an interview with CNBC, “All I know is that I’m good for my $80 billion,” referring to his company’s plans to invest in AI-enabled data centers this year. Microsoft is the main financial sponsor of OpenAI.

Musk, who heads Trump’s new advisory committee on government efficiency, is sues OpenAI try to prevent it from turning into a for-profit entity. The two sides argued in court filings and in public. ua blog post in December, OpenAI wrote that in 2017 Musk “not only wanted, but actually created a for-profit company” to serve as the proposed new company structure. OpenAI released screenshots of an email from Musk to back up its claims.

While Altman’s relationship with Musk has soured, the OpenAI CEO still has ties to the Oracle CEO Larry Ellisona big Trump supporter, which helped his position on the president’s team, the source said. Oracle and OpenAI entered into a cloud computing partnership in June.

Altman also has a close relationship with SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son, another source said. Son publicly pledged $100 billion to invest in the US before the Stargate announcement, and Softbank also backed OpenAI.

WATCH: President Trump is talking about investing in AI infrastructure