Billionaire Mogul Sam Altman Spars With Elon Musk One Day After Standing With Trump In White House

Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, sparred Wednesday with Elon Musk over funding for a Trump-backed AI infrastructure project one day after he stood with the president in the White House to announce the project.

Musk, replying to an OpenAI tweet about the initial round of funding for the project, wrote “They don’t actually have the money.”

He claimed that Soft Bank, one of the three companies who had a representative next to Trump during his Tuesday announcement, did not have even one tenth of the proposed initial funding.

“SoftBank has well under $10B secured. I have that on good authority,” Musk tweeted early Wednesday morning.

SoftBank has well under $10B secured. I have that on good authority.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 22, 2025

Hours later, Altman responded.

“Wrong, as you surely know. Want to come visit the first site already under way? This is great for the country. I realize what is great for the country isn’t always what’s optimal for your companies, but in your new role I hope you’ll mostly put America first.”

wrong, as you surely know.

want to come visit the first site already under way?

this is great for the country. i realize what is great for the country isn’t always what’s optimal for your companies, but in your new role i hope you’ll mostly put 🇺🇸 first.

— Sam Altman (@sama) January 22, 2025

Altman was one of three billionaires to join Trump in the White House on Tuesday to announce The Stargate Project, alongside Oracle CEO Larry Ellison and Soft Bank CEO Masayoshi Son.

The project, Trump announced, would be “the largest AI infrastructure, by far, in history.” Intended to invest at least $500 billion into AI infrastructure, Stargate should create over 100,000 jobs “almost immediately,” Trump announced.

But Musk, arguably Trump’s top surrogate during his presidential campaign, was clearly not convinced.

His quip was far from the first time he’s sent a shot at Altman, the 39-year-old wunderkind who Trump credited as the “leading expert” in AI.

Musk was originally a co-founder of OpenAI, joining forces with Altman and fellow Trump-backer Peter Thiel to establish the AI startup in 2015. But his relationship with Altman and the company soured over plans to take the company public. Since leaving the board of directors in 2018, Musk has been highly critical of Altman and OpenAI, calling the company “evil” and referring to Altman as “Little Finger,” a notoriously unscrupulous character from the HBO drama “Game of Thrones” known for plotting and scheming.

Sam Altman is Little Finger https://t.co/3esBWapV1x

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 26, 2024

Trump’s decision to leave Musk out of the first major technology project of his second administration is notable, especially considering Trump tapped one of Musk’s most public archnemeses as its architect.

Musk, who reportedly spent over a quarter of a billion dollars to help Trump secure the presidential election, has his own AI startup called xAI. (RELATED: Elon Musk Reportedly Makes ‘Sizable’ Donation To Pro-Trump Super PAC)

Musk is also actively suing Altman’s OpenAI.

Altman was a significant backer of Democrats, giving over $1 million to Democrats, including Joe Biden, who he gave over $200,000 to, according to FEC filings. He donated at least $6,600 to Democratic PAC ActBlue as recently as June 2024.

Musk has also donated a significant sum to Democrats, though he donated exclusively to Republicans and GOP-aligned groups in 2024, FEC filings show.