WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday dismissed criticism from close ally Elon Musk about the $500 billion artificial intelligence project that Trump announced with great fanfare at the White House earlier this week.
Trump announced Tuesday that Chatgpt creator Openai, SoftBank ( Tyo 🙂 ), and Oracle ( NYSE 🙂 are planning a joint venture called Stargate, which he said will build data centers and create more than 100,000 jobs in the United States.
Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son, Openai CEO Sam Altman and Oracle Chairman Larry Ellison joined Trump at the White House for the launch.
Musk, the Tesla (NASDAQ 🙂 CEO and richest man in the world who became a close adviser to Trump, is Altman’s rival and is in that lawsuit with OpenAi.
In a post on X on Wednesday, Musk doubted the group could put together the funding for the project.
“They don’t really have any money,” Musk said. “SoftBank is secured under $10 billion. I have that on good authority.”
Trump, taking questions from reporters at the White House on Thursday, was asked about his criticism of the AI deal.
“That’s not it. “The people in the agreement are very, very smart people. But, Elon, one of the people he happens to hate. I also have certain hatreds towards people.”
Regarding Musk’s claims of insufficient funding, Trump said: “I don’t know if they are, but you know, they’re putting money in. The government’s not putting anything in, they’re putting money in. They’re. Very rich people, so I hope they are.”
A Trump adviser wondered if the incident would drive a wedge between Trump and Musk, who heads Trump’s government efficiency project.
“The end may be in sight,” the adviser said.
