Tech mogul Elon Musk, a key supporter of President Donald Trump, is questioning the funding for a new AI project Trump announced Tuesday.
"They don't actually have the money," Musk said late Tuesday on X, formerly known as Twitter, the app he owns, when responding to a post from OpenAI announcing the partnership.
The new entity, Stargate, will start building data centers and the electricity generation needed for the further development of the fast-evolving AI in Texas, according to the White House. The initial investment is expected to be $100 billion and could reach five times that sum, with funding from SoftBank, OpenAI, and Oracle.
"It's big money and high-quality people," Trump said Tuesday, adding that it's "a resounding declaration of confidence in America's potential" under his new administration.
Musk said he was referring to SoftBank in a follow-up X post, saying they have less than $10 billion secured.
Masayoshi Son, a billionaire based in Japan, already committed in December to invest $100 billion in U.S. projects over the next four years. He previously committed to $50 billion in new investments ahead of Trump's first term, which included a large stake in the troubled office-sharing company WeWork.
Musk and CEO Sam Altman were co-chairs of OpenAI when it launched in 2015, but Musk later sued the company after leaving, claiming it strayed from its founding mission, The Washington Post reported.
Musk, who started his own AI company, xAI, is also in charge of the Department of Government Efficiency created formally on Monday by Trump with the goal of reducing government spending.
Other partners in the project include Microsoft, investor MGX, and the chip manufacturers Arm and NVIDIA, according to separate statements by Oracle and OpenAI.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
Sam Barron ✉
Sam Barron has almost two decades of experience covering a wide range of topics including politics, crime and business.
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